• J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Mar 2015

    Cortical thickness in ALS: towards a marker for upper motor neuron involvement.

    • Renée Walhout, Henk-Jan Westeneng, Esther Verstraete, Jeroen Hendrikse, Jan H Veldink, Martijn P van den Heuvel, and Leonard H van den Berg.
    • Department of Neurology, Brain Center Rudolf Magnus, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
    • J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr.. 2015 Mar 1;86(3):288-94.

    ObjectiveExamine whether cortical thinning is a disease-specific phenomenon across the spectrum of motor neuron diseases in relation to upper motor neuron (UMN) involvement.Methods153 patients (112 amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), 19 patients with a clinical UMN phenotype, 22 with a lower motor neuron (LMN) phenotype), 60 healthy controls and 43 patients with an ALS mimic disorder were included for a cross-sectional cortical thickness analysis. Thirty-nine patients with ALS underwent a follow-up scan. T1-weighted images of the brain were acquired using a 3 T scanner. The relation between cortical thickness and clinical measures, and the longitudinal changes were examined.ResultsCortical thickness of the precentral gyrus (PCG) was significantly reduced in ALS (p=1.71×10(-13)) but not in mimic disorders (p=0.37) or patients with an LMN phenotype (p=0.37), as compared to the group of healthy controls. Compared to patients with ALS, patients with a UMN phenotype showed an even lower PCG cortical thickness (p=1.97×10(-3)). Bulbar scores and arm functional scores showed a significant association with cortical thickness of corresponding body regions of the motor homunculus. Longitudinal analysis revealed a decrease of cortical thickness in the left temporal lobe of patients with ALS (parahippocampal region p=0.007 and fusiform cortex p=0.001).ConclusionsPCG cortical thinning was found to be specific for motor neuron disease with clinical UMN involvement. Normal levels of cortical thickness in mimic disorders or LMN phenotypes suggest that cortical thinning reflects pathological changes related to UMN involvement. Progressive cortical thinning in the temporal lobe suggests recruitment of non-motor areas, over time.Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…