In patients with mild disability NMOSD: is the alteration in the cortical morphological or functional network topological properties more significant

作者：Haotian Ma, Yanyan Zhu, Xiao Liang, Lin Wu, Yao Wang, X.L. Li, Long Qian, Gerald L. Cheung, Fuqing Zhou · 发表于：Frontiers in Immunology · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.3389/fimmu.2024.1345843 · 被引用次数：2 · 研究领域：Functional Brain Connectivity Studies、Multiple Sclerosis Research Studies、Advanced Neuroimaging Techniques and Applications

Objective: To assess the alteration of individual brain morphological and functional network topological properties and their clinical significance in patients with neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD). Materials and methods: Eighteen patients with NMOSD and twenty-two healthy controls (HCs) were included. The clinical assessment of NMOSD patients involved evaluations of disability status, cognitive function, and fatigue impact. For each participant, brain images, including high-resolution T1-weighted images for individual morphological brain networks (MBNs) and resting-state functional MR images for functional brain networks (FBNs) were obtained. Topological properties were calculated and compared for both MBNs and FBNs. Then, partial correlation analysis was performed to investigate the relationships between the altered network properties and clinical variables. Finally, the altered network topological properties were used to classify NMOSD patients from HCs and to analyses time- to-progression of the patients. Results: The average Expanded Disability Status Scale score of NMOSD patients was 1.05 (range from 0 to 2), indicating mild disability. Compared to HCs, NMOSD patients exhibited a higher normalized characteristic path length (λ) in their MBNs (P = 0.0118, FDR corrected) but showed no significant differences in the global properties of FBNs (p: 0.405-0.488). Network-based statistical analysis revealed that MBNs had more significantly altered connections (P< ...