title: Longitudinal deformation-based morphometry reveals spatio-temporal dynamics of brain volume changes in patients with corticobasal syndrome.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Corticobasal syndrome (CBS) is a rare neurodegenerative disorder characterized by a progressive and asymmetric manifestation of cortical and basal-ganglia symptoms of different origin. The spatio-temporal dynamics of cerebral atrophy in CBS is barely known. This study aimed to longitudinally quantify the individual dynamics of brain volume changes in patients with CBS as compared to healthy controls.
  
  
  METHODS
  We used deformation-field-based morphometry (DFM) to study volumetric changes of each individual brain in short intervals of a few months. DFM enabled the quantitative analysis of local volume changes without predefining regions of interest in MR images of 6 patients with CBS and 11 matched healthy controls. A total of 64 whole brain 3D-MR-scans were acquired two to eight times over periods of 14 to 26 months. Based on repeated registrations of MR observations to the initial scan, maps of local volume ratio changes were computed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Compared to controls patients showed significant and increasing volume loss over time in premotor and primary-motor-cortices, somatosensory area 3a, superior parietal areas BA 5/7, and corticospinal tract. Furthermore, significant and asymmetric atrophy was identified in the caudate nucleus head, putamen, pallidum, motor-thalamus and substantia nigra. Temporal lobe was affected in those patients who presented progressive cognitive impairment.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The analysis revealed localized, pathological changes in brains of patients with CBS, which differed significantly from those occurring during aging in healthy controls. As compared to age- and sex-matched controls, brains of CBS patients showed a common degenerating neural network comprising the motor circuit with basal ganglia and motor thalamic nuclei as well as the premotor and primary-motor-cortex.
authors: Department of Neurology, Center for Movement Disorders and Neuromodulation, Medical Faculty, Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf, Germany. martin.suedmeyer@uni-duesseldorf.de
authors: Martin
authors: M
authors: Südmeyer
authors: Peter
authors: P
authors: Pieperhoff
authors: Stefano
authors: S
authors: Ferrea
authors: Holger
authors: H
authors: Krause
authors: Stefan Jun
authors: SJ
authors: Groiss
authors: Saskia
authors: S
authors: Elben
authors: Lars
authors: L
authors: Wojtecki
authors: Karl
authors: K
authors: Zilles
authors: Katrin
authors: K
authors: Amunts
authors: Alfons
authors: A
authors: Schnitzler
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001284:Atrophy / Q000473:pathology; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009422:Nervous System Diseases / Q000473:pathology*; D009929:Organ Size; D062211:Spatio-Temporal Analysis