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Summary: Contrasting gray and white matter changes
in preclinical Huntington disease
An MRI study
D. Stoffers, PhD
S. Sheldon, BS
J.M. Kuperman, PhD
J. Goldstein, BS
J. Corey-Bloom, MD,
PhD
A.R. Aron, PhD
ABSTRACT
Background: In Huntington disease (HD), substantial striatal atrophy precedes clinical motor
symptoms. Accordingly, neuroprotection should prevent major cell loss before such symptoms
arise. To evaluate neuroprotection, biomarkers such as MRI measures are needed. This requires
first establishing the best imaging approach.
Methods: Using a cross-sectional design, we acquired T1-weighted and diffusion-weighted scans
in 39 preclinical (pre-HD) individuals and 25 age-matched controls. T1-weighted scans were ana-
lyzed with gross whole-brain segmentation and voxel-based morphometry. Analysis of diffusion-
weighted scans used skeleton-based tractography. For all imaging measures, we compared
pre-HD and control groups and within the pre-HD group we examined correlations with estimated
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