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Assessment of the Corticospinal Tract Profile in Pure Lower Motor Neuron Disease: A Diffusion Tensor Imaging Study
- Source :
- Neurodegenerative diseases (Online) (2019). doi:10.1159/000503970, info:cnr-pdr/source/autori:Sarica A a, Valentino P c, Nisticò R b, Barone S c, Pucci F c, Quattrone A c, Cerasa A b, Quattrone A a,b/titolo:Assessment of the Corticospinal Tract Profile in Pure Lower Motor Neuron Disease: A Diffusion Tensor Imaging Study./doi:10.1159%2F000503970/rivista:Neurodegenerative diseases (Online)/anno:2019/pagina_da:/pagina_a:/intervallo_pagine:/volume
- Publication Year :
- 2019
- Publisher :
- S. Karger AG, 2019.
-
Abstract
- Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate the corticospinal tract (CST) diffusion profile in pure lower motor neuron disease (pLMND) patients who at baseline did not show any clinical or electrophysiological involvement of upper motor neurons (UMN), and in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients. Materials and Methods: Fifteen ALS patients with delayed central motor conduction time (CMCT) and 14 pLMND patients with normal CMCT were enrolled together with 15 healthy controls. Fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), axial diffusivity (AD), and radial diffusivity (RD) maps were obtained. The tract profile of CST was reconstructed with the automated fiber quantification tool and its diffusion properties were quantified voxel-by-voxel and then compared pairwise between groups. Moreover, a random forest (RF) classifier was trained to evaluate the ability of CST diffusion metrics in distinguishing pairwise the groups from the controls. Results: ALS patients presented wide microstructural abnormalities in the entire CST as assessed by FA decrease and RD increase while pLMND patients showed focal FA decrease and a larger AD increase in the cerebral peduncle and posterior limb of the internal capsule in comparison with controls. RF revealed that diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) metrics accurately distinguished ALS patients and pLMND patients from controls (96.67 and 95.71% accuracy, respectively). Conclusions: Our study demonstrates that the CST was impaired in both ALS and pLMND patients, thus suggesting that DTI metrics are a reliable tool in detecting subtle changes of UMN in pLMND patients, also in the absence of clinical and CMCT abnormalities.
- Subjects :
- Adult
Male
Internal capsule
Cerebral Peduncle
Pyramidal Tracts
050105 experimental psychology
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
Internal Capsule
Fractional anisotropy
Lower motor neuron disease
Humans
Medicine
0501 psychology and cognitive sciences
Motor Neuron Disease
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
Aged
business.industry
Cerebral peduncle
05 social sciences
Middle Aged
medicine.disease
Corticospinal tract
Diffusion tensor imaging
Pure lower motor neuron disease
Tractography
Diffusion Tensor Imaging
Neurology
Female
Neurology (clinical)
business
Nuclear medicine
030217 neurology & neurosurgery
Diffusion MRI
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 16602862 and 16602854
- Volume :
- 19
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Neurodegenerative Diseases
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....afc5035d8649cb49b5b4d46e44eb77d3