Structural atrophy and functional disturbance in the thalamic nuclei of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

IF 3.7 3区医学 Q2 NEUROSCIENCES

Brain Research Bulletin Pub Date : 2025-10-11 DOI:10.1016/j.brainresbull.2025.111581

Yun-Bin Cao, Shao-Peng Zhuang, Zhe-Yi Huang, Jia-Yan Shi, Hong-Yu Lin, Sheng Chen, Nao-Xin Huang, Zhang-Yu Zou, Wen Qin, Hua-Jun Chen

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Objective: This study investigated the structural and functional impairments in thalamic nuclei in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and evaluated their associations with disease severity and diagnostic value.

Methods: This study was conducted on T1-weighted and resting-state functional magnetic resonance images from 71 ALS patients and 61 healthy controls. In each hemisphere, the thalamus was parcellated into 25 nuclei and subsequently grouped into 6 subregions. The volume and amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF, reflecting spontaneous neural activity) in each thalamic subregion were measured and compared between groups. These metrics were then used for correlation and diagnostic analyses.

Results: A volumetric reduction was observed in the bilateral anterior, intralaminar, ventral, and left medial thalamic subregions in the ALS patients (FWE-corrected P < 0.05). A decreased ALFF was observed in the right anterior and ventral thalamic subregions of patients with ALS (FWE-corrected P < 0.05). The volumes of the bilateral intralaminar (left: r = 0.418, P < 0.001; right: r = 0.404, P < 0.001) and ventral (left: r = 0.370, P = 0.002; right: r = 0.424, P < 0.001) thalamic subregions were correlated with disease severity. Compared with the whole-thalamic measurements, the volumetric and ALFF measurements of thalamic subregion demonstrated greater diagnostic performance. The combined volumetric and ALFF measurements in the thalamic subregions further resulted in a significantly increased AUC (0.865, P < 0.001).

Conclusions: Selective structural and functional damage to thalamic subregions is a feature of ALS and could potentially contribute to future diagnostic approaches and assessments of disease severity.

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肌萎缩性侧索硬化症患者丘脑核结构萎缩和功能障碍。

目的：研究肌萎缩性侧索硬化症（ALS）丘脑核的结构和功能损伤，并评价其与疾病严重程度和诊断价值的关系。方法：对71例ALS患者和61例健康对照者的t1加权和静息状态功能磁共振图像进行研究。在每个半球，丘脑被分割成25个核，随后被分成6个亚区。测量各组丘脑各亚区低频波动（反映自发神经活动的ALFF）的体积和幅度，并比较各组之间的差异。然后将这些指标用于相关性和诊断分析。结果：ALS患者双侧丘脑前区、板间区、腹侧区和左内侧亚区体积减小（fwe校正P < 0.05）。ALS患者丘脑右侧前亚区和腹侧亚区ALFF明显降低（fwe校正P < 0.05）。双侧丘脑板内区（左：r = 0.418, P < 0.001；右：r = 0.404, P < 0.001）和腹侧丘脑亚区（左：r = 0.370, P = 0.002；右：r = 0.424, P < 0.001）的体积与疾病严重程度相关。与整个丘脑测量相比，丘脑次区域的体积测量和ALFF测量显示出更高的诊断性能。丘脑亚区体积和ALFF联合测量进一步导致AUC显著增加（0.865,P < 0.001）。结论：丘脑亚区的选择性结构和功能损伤是ALS的一个特征，可能有助于未来的诊断方法和疾病严重程度的评估。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Brain Research Bulletin 医学-神经科学

CiteScore

6.90

自引率

2.60%

发文量

253

审稿时长

67 days

期刊介绍： The Brain Research Bulletin (BRB) aims to publish novel work that advances our knowledge of molecular and cellular mechanisms that underlie neural network properties associated with behavior, cognition and other brain functions during neurodevelopment and in the adult. Although clinical research is out of the Journal''s scope, the BRB also aims to publish translation research that provides insight into biological mechanisms and processes associated with neurodegeneration mechanisms, neurological diseases and neuropsychiatric disorders. The Journal is especially interested in research using novel methodologies, such as optogenetics, multielectrode array recordings and life imaging in wild-type and genetically-modified animal models, with the goal to advance our understanding of how neurons, glia and networks function in vivo.