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Structural and functional connectivity assessment in patients with Parkinson's disease
Klobušiaková, Patrícia ; Keller, Jiří (referee) ; Mekyska, Jiří (advisor)
Early changes in visuospatial functions predict dementia in Parkinson’s disease (PD). The aim of this work is to assess both structural and functional connectivity of the fasciculus longitudinalis inferior (ILF), which is engaged in visuospatial processing, in PD patients in comparison to healthy controls, and to find associations between connectivity changes and cognitive performance in the patient groups with or without mild cognitive impairment (MCI). To achieve our goal we recruited PD patients with normal cognition (PD-NC, n = 23) and PD with MCI (PD-MCI, n = 21) as well as healthy controls (HC, n = 48). Bidirectional iterative parcellation was used to isolate ILF tracts and their respective endpoints (occipital lobe and anterior temporal lobe) in each subject. The endpoints then served as regions of interest for functional connectivity calculation. We found ILF microstructural connectivity impairment in PD-MCI group, as measured by mean diffusivity, fractional anisotropy and radial diffusivity. In addition, the functional connectivity of ILF tracts was decreased already in the PD-NC. Both structural and functional connectivity deterioration was associated with visuospatial dysfunction in PD-MCI. These changes could serve as potential markers of disease progression or treatment effects monitoring.
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Structural and functional connectivity assessment in patients with Parkinson's disease
Klobušiaková, Patrícia ; Keller, Jiří (referee) ; Mekyska, Jiří (advisor)
Early changes in visuospatial functions predict dementia in Parkinson’s disease (PD). The aim of this work is to assess both structural and functional connectivity of the fasciculus longitudinalis inferior (ILF), which is engaged in visuospatial processing, in PD patients in comparison to healthy controls, and to find associations between connectivity changes and cognitive performance in the patient groups with or without mild cognitive impairment (MCI). To achieve our goal we recruited PD patients with normal cognition (PD-NC, n = 23) and PD with MCI (PD-MCI, n = 21) as well as healthy controls (HC, n = 48). Bidirectional iterative parcellation was used to isolate ILF tracts and their respective endpoints (occipital lobe and anterior temporal lobe) in each subject. The endpoints then served as regions of interest for functional connectivity calculation. We found ILF microstructural connectivity impairment in PD-MCI group, as measured by mean diffusivity, fractional anisotropy and radial diffusivity. In addition, the functional connectivity of ILF tracts was decreased already in the PD-NC. Both structural and functional connectivity deterioration was associated with visuospatial dysfunction in PD-MCI. These changes could serve as potential markers of disease progression or treatment effects monitoring.
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