Function-structure connectivity in patients with severe brain injury as measured by MRI-DWI and FDG-PET.
A vast body of literature exists showing functional and structural dysfunction within the brains of patients with disorders of consciousness. However, the function (fluorodeoxyglucose FDG-PET metabolism)-structure (MRI-diffusion-weighted images; DWI) relationship and how it is affected in severely brain injured patients remains ill-defined. FDG-PET and MRI-DWI in 25 severely brain injured patients (19 Disorders of Consciousness of which 7 unresponsive wakefulness syndrome, 12 minimally conscious; 6 emergence from minimally conscious state) and 25 healthy control subjects were acquired here. Default mode network (DMN) function-structure connectivity was assessed by fractional anisotropy (FA) and metabolic standardized uptake value (SUV). As expected, a profound decline in regional metabolism and white matter integrity was found in patients as compared with healthy subjects. Furthermore, a function-structure relationship was present in brain-damaged patients between functional metabolism of inferior-parietal, precuneus, and frontal regions and structural integrity of the frontal-inferiorparietal, precuneus-inferiorparietal, thalamo-inferioparietal, and thalamofrontal tracts. When focusing on patients, a stronger relationship between structural integrity of thalamo-inferiorparietal tracts and thalamic metabolism in patients who have emerged from the minimally conscious state as compared with patients with disorders of consciousness was found. The latter finding was in line with the mesocircuit hypothesis for the emergence of consciousness. The findings showed a positive function-structure relationship within most regions of the DMN. Hum Brain Mapp 37:3707-3720, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Cyclotron Research Centre, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium.|Coma Science Group, GIGA Consciousness, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium.|University Hospital of Liège, Liège, Belgium.
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Annen
Cyclotron Research Centre, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium.|Coma Science Group, GIGA Consciousness, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium.|University Hospital of Liège, Liège, Belgium.
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Heine
Cyclotron Research Centre, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium.
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E
Ziegler
Faculty of Social Sciences, Quantitative Methods for Social Sciences, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium.
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G
Frasso
Cyclotron Research Centre, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium.
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M
Bahri
Cyclotron Research Centre, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium.|Coma Science Group, GIGA Consciousness, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium.
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Di Perri
University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
J
J
Stender
Cyclotron Research Centre, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium.|Coma Science Group, GIGA Consciousness, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium.|University Hospital of Liège, Liège, Belgium.
C
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Martial
Cyclotron Research Centre, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium.|Coma Science Group, GIGA Consciousness, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium.|University Hospital of Liège, Liège, Belgium.
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S
Wannez
Headache Research Unit, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium.
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K
D'ostilio
Cyclotron Research Centre, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium.|Coma Science Group, GIGA Consciousness, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium.
E
E
Amico
Cyclotron Research Centre, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium.|Coma Science Group, GIGA Consciousness, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium.
G
G
Antonopoulos
University Hospital of Liège, Liège, Belgium.
C
C
Bernard
University Hospital of Liège, Liège, Belgium.
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F
Tshibanda
University Hospital of Liège, Liège, Belgium.
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R
Hustinx
Cyclotron Research Centre, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium. coma@chu.ulg.ac.be.|Coma Science Group, GIGA Consciousness, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium. coma@chu.ulg.ac.be.|University Hospital of Liège, Liège, Belgium. coma@chu.ulg.ac.be.
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Laureys
D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D020208:Brain Injury, Chronic / Q000150:complications / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003244:Consciousness Disorders / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D005260:Female; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D012044:Regression Analysis; D055815:Young Adult
D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18
DWI; FDG-PET; default mode network; disorders of consciousness; function-structure coupling