Disruption of brain white matter microstructure in primary Sjogren's syndrome: evidence from diffusion tensor imaging

Abstract

In this exploratory study, frontal region WM microstructure alterations accompanied cognitive symptoms and were associated with mild cognitive impairment in PSS. While additional study is warranted to assess the specificity and stability of these results, DTI could provide novel insight into the pathological processes accompanying the subtle cognitive dysfunction commonly experienced by PSS patients.

White Matter Water Diffusion Changes in Primary Sjogren Syndrome

“…16 The present study adds to these previous findings by use of the TBSS analysis, which permits voxelwise statistical analysis of all DTI data and revealed more extensive changes in patients with pSS. 18 FA is a measure of the degree to which water diffusion is constrained in the brain, and its primary determinant is the packing attenuation of axons within a voxel.…”

“…14,15 The DTIderived parameters have been used to investigate WM microstructure in various disorders by use of an ROI approach, in which structures of interest are manually defined on MR images, but information about changes in brain diffusivity in pSS is scarce. 16 Using the ROI method, a decrease in FA and an increase in MD values have been reported in patients with pSS. 16 Similar analytic methods that are based on manually selected ROIs have limitations, mainly because they do not examine the whole brain and they are laborious and time-consuming and therefore prone to human error.…”

“…16 Using the ROI method, a decrease in FA and an increase in MD values have been reported in patients with pSS. 16 Similar analytic methods that are based on manually selected ROIs have limitations, mainly because they do not examine the whole brain and they are laborious and time-consuming and therefore prone to human error. 17 To eliminate the limitations of the ROI-based methods, the so-called voxelwise analysis methods have been developed, which examine the whole brain automatically at a voxel level.…”

Impact of pain on cognitive functions in primary Sjögren syndrome with small fiber neuropathy

“…The main goals of these studies were (1) to explore general neurological complications, [5–7,11]  (2) to study the relation between brain imaging and cognitive impairment, [8,12,15–17,43]  (3) to assess the impact of clinical features on cognition, [9,18,44]  (4) to follow the evolution of cognitive disorders, [45]  (5) to describe a study case, [14]  (6) to analyze the difference between lupus and pSS, [10] and (7) to adapt a test of cognitive complaint for pSS. [13] Overall, 473 pSS patients were explored and a fronto-sub-cortical alteration with attentional, executive, memory and visuo-spatial disorders was described.…”

Validation of the Brief Cognitive Symptoms Index in Sjögren Syndrome

“…To assess the relationship between cognitive symptoms and neuropsychological outcomes, we analyzed data from subjects with pSS drawn from the BioSiPS database who had volunteered to participate in a study of cognitive function and brain imaging 32 . Adults aged 18-60 years were eligible for our study.…”