Longitudinal tracking of white matter connectivity in Huntington's disease: 30 month longitudinal data from the IMAGE-HD study

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Longitudinal tracking of white matter connectivity in Huntington's disease: 30 month longitudinal data from the IMAGE-HD study Govinda Poudel1*, Juan Dominguez1, Louisa Salmon1, Andrew Churchyard2, Phyllis Chua1, Julie Stout1, Gary F. Egan1 and Nellie Georgiou-Karistianis1 1 Monash University, School of Psychology and Psychiatry, Australia 2 Monash Medical Centre, Australia Background: Disruption of structural integrity of specific neural circuits has been proposed to be one of the possible mechanisms underlying progressive deterioration in cognitive and motor function in Huntington’s disease (HD). The aim of this study was to use an unbiased longitudinal diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) analysis approach to track the microstructural integrity of white matter connections in pre-manifest (pre-HD) and symptomatic HD (symp-HD) individuals. Methods: DTI data from 22 pre-HD, 19 symp-HD, and 22 healthy controls was collected at baseline, 18 months, and 30 months, from a cohort of participants in the IMAGE-HD study. DTI data were preprocessed to remove eddy-current and motion artefacts. For longitudinal analysis, we adopted a tensor-based registration pipeline that used full tensor information in DTI data to drive improved alignment over multiple time points and across groups. White matter tracts of interest were delineated by segmenting fractional anisotropy (FA) map of the group atlas using a locally adaptive segmentation algorithm. Body, genu, and splenium of corpus callosum fibre bundle were located by normalization in an atlas space. Microstructural integrity was assessed by statistical analysis of FA values. Results: We observed selective loss in integrity of corpus callosum fibre bundle in both pre-HD close to onset and symp-HD groups. Symp-HD showed significant reduction of FA in all parts of corpus callosum, whereas in pre-HD close to onset FA reduction was topographically selective and localized in the splenium and body of corpus callosum. Discussion: Given that the corpus callosum plays an important role in interhemispheric connectivity, our findings suggest for the first time, that there is a progressive disruption in cortico-cortical structural connectivity in HD. Keywords: Diffusion Tensor Imaging, Huntington's disease, Corpus Callosum, fractional anisotropy, connectivity Conference: ACNS-2013 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society Conference, Clayton, Melbourne, Australia, 28 Nov - 1 Dec, 2013. Presentation Type: Poster Topic: Motor Citation: Poudel G, Dominguez J, Salmon L, Churchyard A, Chua P, Stout J, Egan GF and Georgiou-Karistianis N (2013). Longitudinal tracking of white matter connectivity in Huntington's disease: 30 month longitudinal data from the IMAGE-HD study. Conference Abstract: ACNS-2013 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society Conference. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2013.212.00012 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 15 Oct 2013; Published Online: 25 Nov 2013. * Correspondence: Dr. Govinda Poudel, Monash University, School of Psychology and Psychiatry, Clayton, Australia, govinda.poudel@monash.edu Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Govinda Poudel Juan Dominguez Louisa Salmon Andrew Churchyard Phyllis Chua Julie Stout Gary F Egan Nellie Georgiou-Karistianis Google Govinda Poudel Juan Dominguez Louisa Salmon Andrew Churchyard Phyllis Chua Julie Stout Gary F Egan Nellie Georgiou-Karistianis Google Scholar Govinda Poudel Juan Dominguez Louisa Salmon Andrew Churchyard Phyllis Chua Julie Stout Gary F Egan Nellie Georgiou-Karistianis PubMed Govinda Poudel Juan Dominguez Louisa Salmon Andrew Churchyard Phyllis Chua Julie Stout Gary F Egan Nellie Georgiou-Karistianis Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.