Abstract
Background and purpose
The thalamus is a key brain hub that is globally connected to many cortical regions.
Previous work highlights thalamic contributions to multiple cognitive functions, but
few studies have measured thalamic volume changes or cognitive correlates. This study
investigates associations between thalamic volumes and post-stroke cognitive function.
Methods
Participants with non-thalamic brain infarcts (3-42 months) underwent MRI and cognitive
testing. Focal infarcts and thalami were traced manually. In cases with bilateral
infarcts, the side of the primary infarct volume defined the hemisphere involved.
Brain parcellation and volumetrics were extracted using a standardized and previously
validated neuroimaging pipeline. Age and gender-matched healthy controls provided
normal comparative thalamic volumes. Thalamic atrophy was considered when the volume
exceeded 2 standard deviations greater than the controls.
Results
Thalamic volumes ipsilateral to the infarct in stroke patients (n=55) were smaller
than left (4.4 ± 1.4 vs. 5.4 ± 0.5 cc, p < 0.001) and right (4.4 ± 1.4 vs. 5.5 ± 0.6
cc, p < 0.001) thalamic volumes in the controls. After controlling for head-size and
global brain atrophy, infarct volume independently correlated with ipsilateral thalamic
volume (β= -0.069, p=0.024). Left thalamic atrophy correlated significantly with poorer
cognitive performance (β = 4.177, p = 0.008), after controlling for demographics and
infarct volumes.
Conclusions
Our results suggest that the remote effect of infarction on ipsilateral thalamic volume
is associated with global post-stroke cognitive impairment
Key Words
Abbreviations:
SABRE (semi-automatic brain region extraction), PSCI (post-stroke cognitive impairment), AD (Alzheimer's Disease), MCI (mild cognitive impairment), WMH (white matter hyperintensities), MoCA (Montreal Cognitive Assessment), VCI-60min (60-Minute Protocol (Vascular Cognitive Impairment)), VCI-30min (30-Minute Protocol), VCI-5min (5-Minute Protocol)To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: December 08, 2022
Accepted:
November 10,
2022
Received in revised form:
October 24,
2022
Received:
July 27,
2022
Identification
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jstrokecerebrovasdis.2022.106895
Copyright
© 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
