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Tensor-valued diffusion MRI detects brain microstructural abnormalities in HIV infected individuals with cognitive impairment

Uddin, Md Nasir ; Singh, Meera V. ; Faiyaz, Abrar ; Szczepankiewicz, Filip LU orcid ; Nilsson, Markus LU ; Boodoo, Zachary D. ; Sutton, Karli R. ; Tivarus, Madalina E. ; Zhong, Jianhui and Wang, Lu Hua , et al. (2024) In Scientific Reports 14(1).
Abstract

Despite advancements, the prevalence of HIV-associated neurocognitive impairment remains at approximately 40%, attributed to factors like pre-cART (combination antiretroviral therapy) irreversible brain injury. People with HIV (PWH) treated with cART do not show significant neurocognitive changes over relatively short follow-up periods. However, quantitative neuroimaging may be able to detect ongoing subtle microstructural changes. In this study, we hypothesized that tensor-valued diffusion encoding metrics would provide greater sensitivity than conventional diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) metrics in detecting HIV-associated brain microstructural injury. We further hypothesized that tensor-valued metrics would exhibit stronger... (More)

Despite advancements, the prevalence of HIV-associated neurocognitive impairment remains at approximately 40%, attributed to factors like pre-cART (combination antiretroviral therapy) irreversible brain injury. People with HIV (PWH) treated with cART do not show significant neurocognitive changes over relatively short follow-up periods. However, quantitative neuroimaging may be able to detect ongoing subtle microstructural changes. In this study, we hypothesized that tensor-valued diffusion encoding metrics would provide greater sensitivity than conventional diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) metrics in detecting HIV-associated brain microstructural injury. We further hypothesized that tensor-valued metrics would exhibit stronger associations with blood markers of neuronal and glial injury, such as neurofilament light chain (NFL) and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), as well as with cognitive performance. Using MRI at 3T, 24 PWH and 31 healthy controls underwent cross-sectional examination. The results revealed significant variations in tensor-valued diffusion encoding metrics across white matter regions, with associations observed between these metrics, cognitive performance, NFL and GFAP. Moreover, a significant interaction between HIV status and imaging metrics in gray and white matter was observed, particularly impacting total cognitive scores. Of interest, DTI metrics were less likely to be associated with HIV status than tensor-valued diffusion metrics. These findings suggest that tensor-valued diffusion encoding metrics offer heightened sensitivity in detecting subtle changes associated with axonal injury in HIV infection. Longitudinal studies are needed to further evaluate responsiveness of tensor-valued diffusion b-tensor encoding metrics in the contest HIV-associate mild chronic neuroinflammation.

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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Blood markers, Brain, Cognition, HIV, Neuroimaging, Tensor-valued diffusion encoding
in
Scientific Reports
volume
14
issue
1
article number
28839
publisher
Nature Publishing Group
external identifiers
  • pmid:39572727
  • scopus:85209750087
ISSN
2045-2322
DOI
10.1038/s41598-024-80372-8
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2024.
id
c013954e-b50a-4098-a1fc-a01dd29f9a62
date added to LUP
2025-01-10 14:10:20
date last changed
2025-07-12 05:29:05
@article{c013954e-b50a-4098-a1fc-a01dd29f9a62,
  abstract     = {{<p>Despite advancements, the prevalence of HIV-associated neurocognitive impairment remains at approximately 40%, attributed to factors like pre-cART (combination antiretroviral therapy) irreversible brain injury. People with HIV (PWH) treated with cART do not show significant neurocognitive changes over relatively short follow-up periods. However, quantitative neuroimaging may be able to detect ongoing subtle microstructural changes. In this study, we hypothesized that tensor-valued diffusion encoding metrics would provide greater sensitivity than conventional diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) metrics in detecting HIV-associated brain microstructural injury. We further hypothesized that tensor-valued metrics would exhibit stronger associations with blood markers of neuronal and glial injury, such as neurofilament light chain (NFL) and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), as well as with cognitive performance. Using MRI at 3T, 24 PWH and 31 healthy controls underwent cross-sectional examination. The results revealed significant variations in tensor-valued diffusion encoding metrics across white matter regions, with associations observed between these metrics, cognitive performance, NFL and GFAP. Moreover, a significant interaction between HIV status and imaging metrics in gray and white matter was observed, particularly impacting total cognitive scores. Of interest, DTI metrics were less likely to be associated with HIV status than tensor-valued diffusion metrics. These findings suggest that tensor-valued diffusion encoding metrics offer heightened sensitivity in detecting subtle changes associated with axonal injury in HIV infection. Longitudinal studies are needed to further evaluate responsiveness of tensor-valued diffusion b-tensor encoding metrics in the contest HIV-associate mild chronic neuroinflammation.</p>}},
  author       = {{Uddin, Md Nasir and Singh, Meera V. and Faiyaz, Abrar and Szczepankiewicz, Filip and Nilsson, Markus and Boodoo, Zachary D. and Sutton, Karli R. and Tivarus, Madalina E. and Zhong, Jianhui and Wang, Lu Hua and Qiu, Xing and Weber, Miriam T. and Schifitto, Giovanni}},
  issn         = {{2045-2322}},
  keywords     = {{Blood markers; Brain; Cognition; HIV; Neuroimaging; Tensor-valued diffusion encoding}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{1}},
  publisher    = {{Nature Publishing Group}},
  series       = {{Scientific Reports}},
  title        = {{Tensor-valued diffusion MRI detects brain microstructural abnormalities in HIV infected individuals with cognitive impairment}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-80372-8}},
  doi          = {{10.1038/s41598-024-80372-8}},
  volume       = {{14}},
  year         = {{2024}},
}