Cognitive impairment and whole brain diffusion in patients with neuromyelitis optica after acute relapse |
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Authors: | He Dian Wu Qizhu Chen Xiuying Zhao Daidi Gong Qiyong Zhou Hongyu |
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Institution: | a Department of Neurology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China b Department of Radiology, Huaxi MR Research Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China c Department of Neurology, Affiliated Hospital of Guiyang Medical College, Guiyang, Guizhou Province, China |
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Abstract: | The objective of this study investigated cognitive impairments and their correlations with fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) in patients with neuromyelitis optica (NMO) without visible lesions on conventional brain MRI during acute relapse. Twenty one patients with NMO and 21 normal control subjects received several cognitive tests to assess cognitive function. Head diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) of all patients with NMO were collected with a 3-T MR system. Correlations of cognitive test scores and whole brain FA and MD were examined by voxel-based analysis. Region-of-interest analysis was applied to the significantly correlated regions which the most frequently appeared. We found that NMO patients without visible brain lesions had significantly impaired learning and memory, decreased information processing speed, and damaged attention compared with normal control subjects. These impaired cognitive domains were significantly correlated with FA and MD in local regions of corpus callosum, anterior cingulate and medial frontal cortex. In corpus callosum of NMO patients, mean FA was significantly lower and mean MD higher than normal control subjects. Our findings suggest that cognitive impairments in learning and memory, information processing speed and attention occur in NMO patients without visible brain lesions during acute relapse. The impairments in immediate and short-term memory in NMO patients may be due to information encoding deficits in the process of information acquisition. The corpus callosum of such patients may have local microscopic damages that play a role in cognitive impairments during acute relapse. |
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Keywords: | Neuromyelitis optica Cognitive impairment Diffusion tensor imaging Corpus callosum Anterior cingulate cortex Medial frontal cortex |
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