Radiomic and clinical nomogram for cognitive impairment prediction in Wilson’s disease

Abstract

ObjectiveTo investigate potential biomarkers for the early detection of cognitive impairment in patients with Wilson’s disease (WD), we developed a computer-assisted radiomics model to distinguish between WD and WD cognitive impairment.MethodsOverall, 136 T1-weighted MR images were retrieved from the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui University of Chinese Medicine, including 77 from patients with WD and 59 from patients with WD cognitive impairment. The images were divided into training and test groups at a ratio of 70:30. The radiomic features of each T1-weighted image were extracted using 3D Slicer software. R software was used to establish clinical and radiomic models based on clinical characteristics and radiomic features, respectively. The receiver operating characteristic profiles of the three models were evaluated to assess their diagnostic accuracy and reliability in distinguishing between WD and WD cognitive impairment. We combined relevant neuropsychological test scores of prospective memory to construct an integrated predictive model and visual nomogram to effectively assess the risk of cognitive decline in patients with WD.ResultsThe area under the curve values for distinguishing WD and WD cognitive impairment for the clinical, radiomic, and integrated models were 0.863, 0.922, and 0.935 respectively, indicative of excellent performance. The nomogram based on the integrated model successfully differentiated between WD and WD cognitive impairment.ConclusionThe nomogram developed in the current study may assist clinicians in the early identification of cognitive impairment in patients with WD. Early intervention following such identification may help improve long-term prognosis and quality of life of these patients.

Effect of high-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation on cognitive impairment in WD patients based on inverse probability weighting of propensity scores

“…Not only is the basal ganglia connected to the cortex, but the hippocampus is also widely connected to the cortex and basal ganglia. Therefore, changes in the circuits of the cortex and basal ganglia are directly related to cognitive function, thus explaining the motor and cognitive impairment of patients ( Tian et al, 2023 ). TMS can affect WD-related cognitive impairment by stimulating closed neural circuits in the basal ganglia and cortex ( DeLong and Wichmann, 2015 ; Aggarwal and Bhatt, 2020 ), which may be one of the potential mechanisms by which TMS improves the cognitive function of patients.…”