Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-10-2023

Comments

This article is the author's final published version in World Neurosurgery: X, Volume 21, January 2024, Article number 100268.

The published version is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wnsx.2023.100268.

Copyright © 2023 The Authors.

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The brain undergoes reorganization following spinal cord injury (SCI), but little is known about how the thalamus is affected in pediatric SCIs.

PURPOSE: To characterize microstructural alterations in the thalamus after SCI with diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) metrics.

METHODS: 18 pediatric participants with chronic SCI (8-20 years) were stratified using the American Spinal Injury Association Impairment Scale (AIS) into groups: A, B, and C/D. DTI of the brain used a 3 T Siemens Verio MRI using the parameters: 20 directions, number of averages = 3, b = 1000 s/mm

DATA ANALYSIS: DTI metrics were acquired by superimposing the AAL3 thalamic atlas onto participant diffusion images registered to MNI152 space. We utilized a multiple Mann-Whitney U-test to compare between AIS groups, considering values of p ≤ 0.05 as significant.

RESULTS: FA, AD, RD, and MD significantly differed in thalamic nuclei between AIS groups A vs B and B vs C/D. Significant nuclei include the right ventral anterior, left intralaminar, bilateral lateral pulvinar, and right lateral geniculate.

CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest the presence of microstructural alterations based on SCI severity in pediatric patients. These results are encouraging and warrant further study.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

PubMed ID

38187507

Language

English

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