title: MRI Texture Analysis Reveals Deep Gray Nuclei Damage in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is characterized by extensive corticospinal damage, but extrapyramidal involvement is suggested in pathological studies. Texture analysis (TA) is an image processing technique that evaluates the distribution of gray levels between pixels in a given region of interest (ROI). It provides quantitative data and has been employed in several neurodegenerative disorders. Here, we used TA to investigate possible deep gray nuclei (DGN) abnormalities in a cohort of ALS patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirty-two ALS patients and 32 healthy controls underwent MRI in a 3T scanner. The T1 volumetric sequence was used for DGN segmentation and extraction of 11 texture parameters using the MaZda software. Statistical analyses were performed using the Mann-Whitney non-parametric test, with a significance level set at α = 0.025 (FDR-corrected) for TA.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Patients had significantly higher values for the parameter correlation (CO) in both thalami and in the right caudate nucleus compared to healthy controls. Also, the parameter Inverse Difference Moment or Homogeneity (IDM) presented significantly smaller values in the ALS group in both thalami.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  TA of T1 weighted images revealed DGN alterations in patients with ALS, namely in the thalami and caudate nuclei.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Neurology and Neuroimaging Laboratory, School of Medical Sciences, University of Campinas - UNICAMP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Milena
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: de Albuquerque
authors.affiliation: Departments of Neurology and Neuroimaging Laboratory, School of Medical Sciences, University of Campinas - UNICAMP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Lara G V
authors.initials: LG
authors.lastname: Anjos
authors.affiliation: Departments of Neurology and Neuroimaging Laboratory, School of Medical Sciences, University of Campinas - UNICAMP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Helen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Maia Tavares de Andrade
authors.affiliation: Neurophysics Group, Institute of Physics Gleb Wataghin, University of Campinas -UNICAMP, Brazil.|Brazilian Institute of Neuroscience and Neurotechnology (BRAINN).
authors.forename: Márcia S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: de Oliveira
authors.affiliation: Neurophysics Group, Institute of Physics Gleb Wataghin, University of Campinas -UNICAMP, Brazil.|Brazilian Institute of Neuroscience and Neurotechnology (BRAINN).
authors.forename: Gabriela
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Castellano
authors.affiliation: Departments of Neurology and Neuroimaging Laboratory, School of Medical Sciences, University of Campinas - UNICAMP, Brazil.|Neurophysics Group, Institute of Physics Gleb Wataghin, University of Campinas -UNICAMP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Thiago
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Junqueira Ribeiro de Rezende
authors.affiliation: Departments of Neurology and Neuroimaging Laboratory, School of Medical Sciences, University of Campinas - UNICAMP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Anamarli
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nucci
authors.affiliation: Departments of Neurology and Neuroimaging Laboratory, School of Medical Sciences, University of Campinas - UNICAMP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Marcondes Cavalcante
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: França Junior
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000690:Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D002421:Caudate Nucleus / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013788:Thalamus / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology
keywords: ALS; MRI; ROI; basal ganglia; texture analysis