Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Structural and microstructural thalamocortical network disruption in sporadic behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia

Jakabek, David ; Power, Brian D. ; Spotorno, Nicola LU ; Macfarlane, Matthew D. ; Walterfang, Mark ; Velakoulis, Dennis ; Nilsson, Christer LU ; Waldö, Maria Landqvist LU ; Lätt, Jimmy LU and Nilsson, Markus LU , et al. (2023) In NeuroImage: Clinical 39. p.1-11
Abstract

Background: Using multi-block methods we combined multimodal neuroimaging metrics of thalamic morphology, thalamic white matter tract diffusion metrics, and cortical thickness to examine changes in behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia. (bvFTD). Method: Twenty-three patients with sporadic bvFTD and 24 healthy controls underwent structural and diffusion MRI scans. Clinical severity was assessed using the Clinical Dementia Rating scale and behavioural severity using the Frontal Behaviour Inventory by patient caregivers. Thalamic volumes were manually segmented. Anterior and posterior thalamic radiation fractional anisotropy and mean diffusivity were extracted using Tract-Based Spatial Statistics. Finally, cortical thickness was... (More)

Background: Using multi-block methods we combined multimodal neuroimaging metrics of thalamic morphology, thalamic white matter tract diffusion metrics, and cortical thickness to examine changes in behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia. (bvFTD). Method: Twenty-three patients with sporadic bvFTD and 24 healthy controls underwent structural and diffusion MRI scans. Clinical severity was assessed using the Clinical Dementia Rating scale and behavioural severity using the Frontal Behaviour Inventory by patient caregivers. Thalamic volumes were manually segmented. Anterior and posterior thalamic radiation fractional anisotropy and mean diffusivity were extracted using Tract-Based Spatial Statistics. Finally, cortical thickness was assessed using Freesurfer. We used shape analyses, diffusion measures, and cortical thickness as features in sparse multi-block partial least squares (PLS) discriminatory analyses to classify participants within bvFTD or healthy control groups. Sparsity was tuned with five-fold cross-validation repeated 10 times. Final model fit was assessed using permutation testing. Additionally, sparse multi-block PLS was used to examine associations between imaging features and measures of dementia severity. Results: Bilateral anterior-dorsal thalamic atrophy, reduction in mean diffusivity of thalamic projections, and frontotemporal cortical thinning, were the main features predicting bvFTD group membership. The model had a sensitivity of 96%, specificity of 68%, and was statistically significant using permutation testing (p = 0.012). For measures of dementia severity, we found similar involvement of regional thalamic and cortical areas as in discrimination analyses, although more extensive thalamo-cortical white matter metric changes. Conclusions: Using multimodal neuroimaging, we demonstrate combined structural network dysfunction of anterior cortical regions, cortical-thalamic projections, and anterior thalamic regions in sporadic bvFTD.

(Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; and , et al. (More)
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; and (Less)
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia, Diffusion, MRI, Partial least squares, Shape analysis
in
NeuroImage: Clinical
volume
39
article number
103471
pages
1 - 11
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • pmid:37473493
  • scopus:85166620564
ISSN
2213-1582
DOI
10.1016/j.nicl.2023.103471
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
Publisher Copyright: © 2023
id
2e5fb3e5-da8c-4c8e-8dca-bb572959c7e1
date added to LUP
2023-08-18 16:13:06
date last changed
2024-04-20 01:02:02
@article{2e5fb3e5-da8c-4c8e-8dca-bb572959c7e1,
  abstract     = {{<p>Background: Using multi-block methods we combined multimodal neuroimaging metrics of thalamic morphology, thalamic white matter tract diffusion metrics, and cortical thickness to examine changes in behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia. (bvFTD). Method: Twenty-three patients with sporadic bvFTD and 24 healthy controls underwent structural and diffusion MRI scans. Clinical severity was assessed using the Clinical Dementia Rating scale and behavioural severity using the Frontal Behaviour Inventory by patient caregivers. Thalamic volumes were manually segmented. Anterior and posterior thalamic radiation fractional anisotropy and mean diffusivity were extracted using Tract-Based Spatial Statistics. Finally, cortical thickness was assessed using Freesurfer. We used shape analyses, diffusion measures, and cortical thickness as features in sparse multi-block partial least squares (PLS) discriminatory analyses to classify participants within bvFTD or healthy control groups. Sparsity was tuned with five-fold cross-validation repeated 10 times. Final model fit was assessed using permutation testing. Additionally, sparse multi-block PLS was used to examine associations between imaging features and measures of dementia severity. Results: Bilateral anterior-dorsal thalamic atrophy, reduction in mean diffusivity of thalamic projections, and frontotemporal cortical thinning, were the main features predicting bvFTD group membership. The model had a sensitivity of 96%, specificity of 68%, and was statistically significant using permutation testing (p = 0.012). For measures of dementia severity, we found similar involvement of regional thalamic and cortical areas as in discrimination analyses, although more extensive thalamo-cortical white matter metric changes. Conclusions: Using multimodal neuroimaging, we demonstrate combined structural network dysfunction of anterior cortical regions, cortical-thalamic projections, and anterior thalamic regions in sporadic bvFTD.</p>}},
  author       = {{Jakabek, David and Power, Brian D. and Spotorno, Nicola and Macfarlane, Matthew D. and Walterfang, Mark and Velakoulis, Dennis and Nilsson, Christer and Waldö, Maria Landqvist and Lätt, Jimmy and Nilsson, Markus and van Westen, Danielle and Lindberg, Olof and Looi, Jeffrey C.L. and Santillo, Alexander F.}},
  issn         = {{2213-1582}},
  keywords     = {{Behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia; Diffusion; MRI; Partial least squares; Shape analysis}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{1--11}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{NeuroImage: Clinical}},
  title        = {{Structural and microstructural thalamocortical network disruption in sporadic behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nicl.2023.103471}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.nicl.2023.103471}},
  volume       = {{39}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}