title: Impairments in Brain Perfusion, Metabolites, Functional Connectivity, and Cognition in Severe Asymptomatic Carotid Stenosis Patients: An Integrated MRI Study.
abstract: Carotid artery stenosis without transient ischemic attack (TIA) or stroke is considered as "asymptomatic." However, recent studies have demonstrated that these asymptomatic carotid artery stenosis (aCAS) patients had cognitive impairment in tests of executive function, psychomotor speed, and memory, indicating that "asymptomatic" carotid stenosis may not be truly asymptomatic. In this study, when 19 aCAS patients compared with 24 healthy controls, aCAS patients showed significantly poorer performance on global cognition, memory, and executive function. By utilizing an integrated MRI including pulsed arterial spin labeling (pASL) MRI, Proton MR Spectroscopy (MRS), and resting-state functional MRI (R-fMRI), we also found that aCAS patients suffered decreased cerebral blood flow (CBF) mainly in the Left Frontal Gyrus and had decreased NAA/Cr ratio in the left hippocampus and decreased connectivity to the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) in the anterior part of default mode network (DMN).
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.
authors.forename: Feng
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-2929-1844
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.
authors.forename: Guangyao
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-0456-3682
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.
authors.forename: Jian
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-1225-1432
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.
authors.forename: Zhenmeng
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-8876-494X
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.
authors.forename: Hongliang
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-3291-7780
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.
authors.forename: Junjian
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-4557-5137
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.
authors.forename: Haibo
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-8451-8979
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Xu
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001921:Brain / Q000098:blood supply / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D016893:Carotid Stenosis / Q000150:complications / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D060825:Cognitive Dysfunction / Q000150:complications / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000503:physiopathology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests