NeuroImage. Clinical
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Alterations in cortical development and impaired neurodevelopmental outcomes have been described following very preterm (VPT) birth in childhood and adolescence, but only a few studies to date have investigated grey matter (GM) and white matter (WM) maturation in VPT samples in early adult life. Using voxel-based morphometry (VBM) we studied regional GM and WM volumes in 68 VPT-born individuals (mean gestational age 30 weeks) and 43 term-born controls aged 19-20 years, and their association with cognitive outcomes (Hayling Sentence Completion Test, Controlled Oral Word Association Test, Visual Reproduction test of the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised) and gestational age. Structural MRI data were obtained with a 1.5 Tesla system and analysed using the VBM8 toolbox in SPM8 with a customized study-specific template. ⋯ WM volume in posterior corpus callosum/thalamus/fornix and GM volume in temporal gyri bilaterally, accounted for 21% of the variance of executive function (F = 9.9, p < 0.0001) and WM in the posterior corpus callosum/thalamus/fornix alone accounted for 17% of the variance of total non-verbal memory scores (F = 9.9, p < 0.0001). These results reveal that VPT birth continues to be associated with altered structural brain anatomy in early adult life, although it remains to be ascertained whether these changes reflect neurodevelopmental delays or long lasting structural alterations due to prematurity. GM and WM alterations correlate with length of gestation and mediate cognitive outcome.
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NeuroImage. Clinical · Jan 2014
Parallel ICA of FDG-PET and PiB-PET in three conditions with underlying Alzheimer's pathology.
The relationships between clinical phenotype, β-amyloid (Aβ) deposition and neurodegeneration in Alzheimer's disease (AD) are incompletely understood yet have important ramifications for future therapy. The goal of this study was to utilize multimodality positron emission tomography (PET) data from a clinically heterogeneous population of patients with probable AD in order to: (1) identify spatial patterns of Aβ deposition measured by ((11)C)-labeled Pittsburgh Compound B (PiB-PET) and glucose metabolism measured by FDG-PET that correlate with specific clinical presentation and (2) explore associations between spatial patterns of Aβ deposition and glucose metabolism across the AD population. We included all patients meeting the criteria for probable AD (NIA-AA) who had undergone MRI, PiB and FDG-PET at our center (N = 46, mean age 63.0 ± 7.7, Mini-Mental State Examination 22.0 ± 4.8). ⋯ These findings are strikingly similar to those of univariate paradigms and provide additional support in favor of specific involvement of the language network, higher-order visual network, and default mode network in clinical variants of AD. The inverse relationship between Aβ deposition and glucose metabolism in partially overlapping brain regions suggests that Aβ may exert both local and remote effects on brain metabolism. Applying multivariate approaches such as pICA to multimodal imaging data is a promising approach for unraveling the complex relationships between different elements of AD pathophysiology.
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NeuroImage. Clinical · Jan 2014
Increased cortical curvature reflects white matter atrophy in individual patients with early multiple sclerosis.
White matter atrophy occurs independently of lesions in multiple sclerosis. In contrast to lesion detection, the quantitative assessment of white matter atrophy in individual patients has been regarded as a major challenge. We therefore tested the hypothesis that white matter atrophy (WMA) is present at the very beginning of multiple sclerosis (MS) and in virtually each individual patient. To find a new sensitive and robust marker for WMA we investigated the relationship between cortical surface area, white matter volume (WMV), and whole-brain-surface-averaged rectified cortical extrinsic curvature. Based on geometrical considerations we hypothesized that cortical curvature increases if WMV decreases and the cortical surface area remains constant. ⋯ Whole-brain-averaged cortical extrinsic curvature appears to be a specific and quantitative marker for a WMV-cortex disproportionality and allows us to assess "pure" WMA without being confounded by intracranial volume. WMA seems to be a characteristic symptom in early MS and can already occur in patients with CIS and should thus be considered in future MS research and clinical studies.
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NeuroImage. Clinical · Jan 2014
Arterial spin labelling reveals prolonged arterial arrival time in idiopathic Parkinson's disease.
Idiopathic Parkinson's disease (IPD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disease, yet effective disease modifying treatments are still lacking. Neurodegeneration involves multiple interacting pathological pathways. The extent to which neurovascular mechanisms are involved is not well defined in IPD. ⋯ However, there were no statistically significant differences in white matter lesion score, CBF, or CVR between patients and controls. Regional CBF, but not AAT, in the IPD group was found to correlate positively with Montreal cognitive assessment (MoCA) scores. These findings provide further evidence of alterations in NVS in IPD.
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NeuroImage. Clinical · Jan 2014
Single-subject-based whole-brain MEG slow-wave imaging approach for detecting abnormality in patients with mild traumatic brain injury.
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a leading cause of sustained impairment in military and civilian populations. However, mild TBI (mTBI) can be difficult to detect using conventional MRI or CT. Injured brain tissues in mTBI patients generate abnormal slow-waves (1-4 Hz) that can be measured and localized by resting-state magnetoencephalography (MEG). ⋯ The result also showed that MEG slow-wave generation in prefrontal areas positively correlated with personality change, trouble concentrating, affective lability, and depression symptoms. Discussion is provided regarding the neuronal mechanisms of MEG slow-wave generation due to deafferentation caused by axonal injury and/or blockages/limitations of cholinergic transmission in TBI. This study provides an effective way for using MEG slow-wave source imaging to localize affected areas and supports MEG as a tool for assisting the diagnosis of mTBI.