title: Brain White Matter Impairment in Patients with Spinal Cord Injury.
abstract: It remains unknown whether spinal cord injury (SCI) could indirectly impair or reshape the white matter (WM) of human brain and whether these changes are correlated with injury severity, duration, or clinical performance. We choose tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) to investigate the possible changes in whole-brain white matter integrity and their associations with clinical variables in fifteen patients with SCI. Compared with the healthy controls, the patients exhibited significant decreases in WM fractional anisotropy (FA) in the left angular gyrus (AG), right cerebellum (CB), left precentral gyrus (PreCG), left lateral occipital region (LOC), left superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF), left supramarginal gyrus (SMG), and left postcentral gyrus (PostCG) (p< 0.01, TFCE corrected). No significant differences were found in all diffusion indices between the complete and incomplete SCI. However, significantly negative correlation was shown between the increased radial diffusivity (RD) of left AG and total motor scores (uncorrectedp< 0.05). Our findings provide evidence that SCI can cause not only direct degeneration but also transneuronal degeneration of brain WM, and these changes may be irrespective of the injury severity. The affection of left AG on rehabilitation therapies need to be further researched in the future.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China; Beijing Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Brain Informatics, Beijing, China; Department of Radiology, Dongfang Hospital, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Weimin
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China; Beijing Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Brain Informatics, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China; Beijing Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Brain Informatics, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Beijing Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Brain Informatics, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Lu
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wan
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, China.
authors.forename: Wen
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China; Beijing Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Brain Informatics, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Zhigang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Qi
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China; Beijing Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Brain Informatics, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Nan
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-8210-103X
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China; Beijing Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Brain Informatics, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Kuncheng
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013119:Spinal Cord Injuries / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology; D066127:White Matter / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology