Regional brain tissue changes in patients with cystic fibrosis

Journal of Translational Medicine

卷:19

Susana Vacas¹  Bhaswati Roy¹  Rajesh Kumar¹  Adupa P. Rao²  Patricia Eshaghian³  Marlyn S. Woo⁴ 

[1] Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, University of California at Los Angeles;

[2] Department of Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California;

[3] Department of Medicine, University of California at Los Angeles;

[4] Department of Pediatric Pulmonology, University of California at Los Angeles;

关键词: Cognition;    Mood;    Gray matter density;    T2-relaxometery;    Magnetic resonance imaging;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12967-021-03092-x

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Abstract Background Cystic fibrosis (CF) patients present with a variety of symptoms, including mood and cognition deficits, in addition to classical respiratory, and autonomic issues. This suggests that brain injury, which can be examined with non-invasive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), is a manifestation of this condition. However, brain tissue integrity in sites that regulate cognitive, autonomic, respiratory, and mood functions in CF patients is unclear. Our aim was to assess regional brain changes using high-resolution T1-weighted images based gray matter (GM) density and T2-relaxometry procedures in CF over control subjects. Methods We acquired high-resolution T1-weighted images and proton-density (PD) and T2-weighted images from 5 CF and 15 control subjects using a 3.0-Tesla MRI. High-resolution T1-weighted images were partitioned to GM-tissue type, normalized to a common space, and smoothed. Using PD- and T2-weighted images, whole-brain T2-relaxation maps were calculated, normalized, and smoothed. The smoothed GM-density and T2-relaxation maps were compared voxel-by-voxel between groups using analysis of covariance (covariates, age and sex; SPM12, p < 0.001). Results Significantly increased GM-density, indicating tissues injury, emerged in multiple brain regions, including the cerebellum, hippocampus, amygdala, basal forebrain, insula, and frontal and prefrontal cortices. Various brain areas showed significantly reduced T2-relaxation values in CF subjects, indicating predominant acute tissue changes, in the cerebellum, cerebellar tonsil, prefrontal and frontal cortices, insula, and corpus callosum. Conclusions Cystic fibrosis subjects show predominant acute tissue changes in areas that control mood, cognition, respiratory, and autonomic functions and suggests that tissue changes may contribute to symptoms resulting from ongoing hypoxia accompanying the condition.

【 授权许可】

Unknown