Widespread cortical thinning in patients with neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder

Abstract

Widespread cortical thinning was observed in patients with NMOSD and MS, but the extent of cortical thinning was greater in patients with MS. The more severe cortical atrophy may contribute to memory impairment in patients with MS but not in those with NMOSD. These results provide in vivo evidence that the severity and clinical relevance of cortical thinning differ between NMOSD and MS.

Deep gray matter atrophy in neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder and multiple sclerosis

“…As the thalamus serves as a gateway to the cerebral cortex and subcortical regions, it is thought to be involved in higher cortical cognitive functions . Whereas previous studies showed no significant relationship between cortical thinning and CI in patients with NMOSD , we were able to show significantly greater thalamic atrophy in patients with NMOSD with CI than in those with CP; no such differences in thalamic volume were evident between patients with NMOSD with CP and HCs. These findings suggest that subcortical pathology may contribute more than cortical pathology to CI in patients with NMOSD.…”

“…These findings suggest that subcortical pathology may contribute more than cortical pathology to CI in patients with NMOSD. In contrast to these findings, patients with MS have been shown to exhibit significant associations between cortical thinning and CI , and subcortical DGM pathology has been linked to CI in both the current and previous studies . Our findings support the notion that CI is significantly associated with DGM pathology in both NMOSD and MS.…”

“…Although many earlier studies failed to find gray matter abnormalities in NMOSD [7][8][9][10], a number of recent studies have begun to reveal gray matter pathology in these patients [11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. Recent studies described no correlation between cortical gray matter thinning and clinical disability including CI in NMOSD [11,12].…”

“…Although many earlier studies failed to find gray matter abnormalities in NMOSD [7][8][9][10], a number of recent studies have begun to reveal gray matter pathology in these patients [11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. Recent studies described no correlation between cortical gray matter thinning and clinical disability including CI in NMOSD [11,12]. However, the presence of subcortical deep gray matter (DGM) atrophy and its clinical implications in NMOSD were controversial in previous studies, due to small sample sizes and different evaluation tools [9,10,[14][15][16][17].…”

Advances and insights into neurological practice 2016−17

“…Neuromuscular disorders , trauma , neuro‐inflammation , headache and more general neurological topics complete the 2016 spectrum of the Journal's purview.…”