Abstract Details

Title Changes to the Structural Connectivity Network in MS Subjects Is Correlated with Cortical Thickness and a Measure of Disability

Topic MS and Related Diseases

Presentation(s) (-)

Poster/Presentation
Number 008

Objective

Background MS is an inflammatory, demyelinating disorder of the central nervous system that leads to physical and cognitive disability of variable severity. This variability may arise from differences in location of WM abnormalities and subsequent structural connectivity network disruption.

Design/Methods This was a cross-sectional study of 28 early MS patients aged 36.8±9.5 years with disease duration 2.8±0.88 years, EDSS: 0.70±0.87, written Symbol Digit Modality Test (SDMT): 51.0±12.1, and MS Quality of Life (MSQOL): physical (77.0±17.2) and mental (75.4±20.3). WM abnormality masks were created by identifying T2-FLAIR hyperintensities with FSL/FreeSurfer and manual editing. For a given mask, the LoCo Tool uses WM tracts from healthy controls to infer the connectivity loss for 86 cortical/subcortical regions and overall network quality, measured by efficiency.

Results The regions of highest connectivity loss were the bilateral pericalcarine, caudate nucleus, lateral occipital and lingual gyri as well as right anterior cingulate and precuneus. Significant correlation was found between the population mean of LoCo scores and cortical thicknesses for 68 cortical regions (r=-0.50,p=1.36x10-5). Three correlations were found with physical and cognitive tests: 1) SDMT with thalamic volume (r=0.42,p=0.028), 2) physical MSQOL with network efficiency (r=0.41,p=0.035), 3) physical MSQOL with WM lesion load (LL) (r=-0.43,p=0.025). Note: the significance threshold was not adjusted to account for three tests.

Conclusions Cortical regions with more WM disconnection were thinner, particularly occipital regions including and adjacent to the PVC. The pericalcarine cortex, a region for which atrophy has been linked to MS conversion3, had the highest disconnection. Individuals with more efficient networks and lower LL had higher physical MSQOL and patients with thalamic atrophy had lower SDMT.

Authors/Disclosures
Amy Kuceyeski, PhD (Weill Cornell Medical College, Radiology) PRESENTER	An immediate family member of Dr. Kuceyeski has received personal compensation for serving as an employee of Heyer Physical Therapy. The institution of Dr. Kuceyeski has received research support from National Institutes of Health. Dr. Kuceyeski has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Grant Panel Member with Department of Defense.
Jai Perumal, MD	Dr. Perumal has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for Genentech. Dr. Perumal has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for T G therapeutics. Dr. Perumal has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for EMD Serono.
	No disclosure on file
	No disclosure on file
Ashish Raj	No disclosure on file
Susan Gauthier, DO (Weill Cornell Medicine)	Dr. Gauthier has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for Gnenetech. The institution of Dr. Gauthier has received research support from Genentech.

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