Spatial patterns of whole brain grey and white matter injury in patients with occult spastic diplegic cerebral palsy

PLoS One. 2014 Jun 25;9(6):e100451. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0100451. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

Spastic diplegic cerebral palsy (SDCP) is a common type of cerebral palsy (CP), which presents as a group of motor-impairment syndromes. Previous conventional MRI studies have reported abnormal structural changes in SDCP, such as periventricular leucomalacia. However, there are roughly 27.8% SDCP patients presenting normal appearance in conventional MRI, which were considered as occult SDCP. In this study, sixteen patients with occult SDCP and 16 age- and sex-matched healthy control subjects were collected and the data were acquired on a 3T MR system. We applied voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) analysis to investigate whole brain grey and white matter injury in occult SDCP. By using VBM method, the grey matter volume reduction was revealed in the bilateral basal ganglia regions, thalamus, insula, and left cerebral peduncle, whereas the white matter atrophy was found to be located in the posterior part of corpus callosum and right posterior corona radiata in the occult SDCP patients. By using TBSS, reduced fractional anisotropy (FA) values were detected in multiple white matter regions, including bilateral white matter tracts in prefrontal lobe, temporal lobe, internal and external capsule, corpus callosum, cingulum, thalamus, brainstem and cerebellum. Additionally, several regions of white matter tracts injury were found to be significantly correlated with motor dysfunction. These results collectively revealed the spatial patterns of whole brain grey and white matter injury in occult SDCP.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Case-Control Studies
  • Cerebral Palsy / pathology*
  • Cerebral Palsy / physiopathology*
  • Child
  • Child, Preschool
  • Female
  • Gray Matter / injuries*
  • Gray Matter / pathology
  • Gray Matter / physiopathology
  • Humans
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  • Male
  • Motor Activity
  • Organ Size
  • Spatial Analysis
  • White Matter / injuries*
  • White Matter / pathology
  • White Matter / physiopathology

Supplementary concepts

  • Cerebral palsy, spastic, diplegic

Grants and funding

This work was supported by Beijing Natural Science Foundation (Grant No. 7143186) and the Scientific Foundation of General Hospital of Armed Police (Grant No. WZ2010006). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.