1. Microstructural white matter alterations associated to neurocognitive deficits in childhood leukemia survivors treated with cranial radiotherapy - a diffusional kurtosis study
- Author
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Pia C. Sundgren, Aki Johanson, Cecilia Follin, Danielle van Westen, Eva Marie Erfurth, Jimmy Lätt, Markus Nilsson, Isabella M. Björkman-Burtscher, Sigridur Fjalldal, and Daniel Svärd
- Subjects
Adult ,Male ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Uncinate fasciculus ,Antineoplastic Agents ,behavioral disciplines and activities ,Memory and Learning Tests ,030218 nuclear medicine & medical imaging ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Visual memory ,Cancer Survivors ,Memory ,Internal medicine ,Medicine ,Cingulum (brain) ,Humans ,Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and imaging ,Cognitive Dysfunction ,Leukemia ,business.industry ,Fornix ,Hematology ,General Medicine ,Middle Aged ,Executive functions ,White Matter ,Diffusion Tensor Imaging ,nervous system ,Oncology ,030220 oncology & carcinogenesis ,Cardiology ,Female ,Verbal memory ,Cranial Irradiation ,business ,Neurocognitive ,Diffusion MRI - Abstract
Background: Cranial radiotherapy (CRT) is a known risk factor for neurocognitive impairment in survivors of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and diffusional kurtosis imaging (DKI) are MRI techniques that quantify microstructural changes in brain white matter (WM) and DKI is regarded as the more sensitive of them. Our aim was to more thoroughly understand the nature of cognitive deficits after cranial radiotherapy (CRT) in adulthood after childhood ALL. Material and methods: Thirty-eight (21 women) ALL survivors, median age 38 (27–46) years, were investigated at median 34 years after diagnosis. All had been treated with a CRT dose of 24 Gy and with 11 years of complete hormone supplementation. DTI and DKI parameters were determined and neurocognitive tests were performed in ALL survivors and 29 matched controls. Results: ALL survivors scored lower than controls in neurocognitive tests of vocabulary, memory, learning capacity, spatial ability, executive functions, and attention (p
- Published
- 2019