• Klaus Kopitzki, Andreas Oldag, Catherine M Sweeney-Reed, Judith Machts, Maria Veit, Jörn Kaufmann, Hermann Hinrichs, Hans-Jochen Heinze, Katja Kollewe, Susanne Petri, Bahram Mohammadi, Reinhard Dengler, Andreas R Kupsch, and Stefan Vielhaber.
• Clinic for Neurology and Stereotactic Neurosurgery, Otto-von-Guericke University, Leipziger Strasse 44, 39120 Magdeburg, Germany; Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Brenneckestrasse 6, 39118 Magdeburg, Germany.
• Neuroimage Clin. 2016 Jan 1; 12: 666-672.

PurposeAim of the present study was to investigate potential impairment of non-motor areas in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). In particular, we evaluated whether homotopic resting-state functional connectivity (rs-FC) of non-motor associated cortical areas correlates with clinical parameters and disease-specific degeneration of the corpus callosum (CC) in ALS.Material And MethodsInterhemispheric homotopic rs-FC was assessed in 31 patients and 30 healthy controls (HCs) for 8 cortical sites, from prefrontal to occipital cortex, using NIRS. DTI was performed in a subgroup of 21 patients. All patients were evaluated for cognitive dysfunction in the executive, memory, and visuospatial domains.ResultsALS patients displayed an altered spatial pattern of correlation between homotopic rs-FC values when compared to HCs (p = 0.000013). In patients without executive dysfunction a strong correlation existed between the rate of motor decline and homotopic rs-FC of the anterior temporal lobes (ATLs) (ρ = - 0.85, p = 0.0004). Furthermore, antero-temporal homotopic rs-FC correlated with fractional anisotropy in the central corpus callosum (CC), corticospinal tracts (CSTs), and forceps minor as determined by DTI (p < 0.05).ConclusionsThe present study further supports involvement of non-motor areas in ALS. Our results render homotopic rs-FC as assessed by NIRS a potential clinical marker for disease progression rate in ALS patients without executive dysfunction and a potential anatomical marker for ALS-specific degeneration of the CC and CSTs.

35 keywords...

hide…