Article Figures & Data
Figures
- FIG 1.
Overview of the image acquisition and processing pipeline.
- FIG 2.
The fiber microstructure metrics of whole-brain short- (black) and long-range (gray) connections in patients with MS and HCs. log2 indicates the length of fibers was denoted in a logarithmic manner with base 2.
- FIG 3.
Severity of lesion damage (z score) compared between short- and long-range connections. The * represents a significant difference between short-and long-range fibers (P < 0.05); ** represents P < 0.01. # represents P < 0.05 using the one sample t test on a convergence of the average value to zero to compare with HCs. ## represents P < 0.01, FDR-corrected.
Tables
- Table 1:
Demographic, clinical, and MR imaging volumetric characteristics of all participantsa
MS (n = 16) HC (n = 17) P Value Demographics Age (yr) 31.94 (SD, 9.72) 28.04 (SD, 4.51) .063 Sex (male/female) 8/8 8/9 .866 Education (yr) 13.81 (SD, 3.17) 16.00 (SD, 3.82) .084 Clinical data DMDs (%)b 62.5% (10/16) NA NA EDSS score 1.0 (0.0–5.0) NA NA Disease duration (yr) 3.17 (0.36–9.42) NA NA MR imaging volumetric data Whole-brain volume (L) 1.51 (SD, 0.16) 1.54 (SD, 0.24) .647 Brain GM volume (L) 0.81 (SD, 0.13) 0.87 (SD, 0.13) .477 Brain WM volume (L) 0.60 (SD, 0.11) 0.63 (SD, 0.10) .202 Lesion volume (mL) 4.09 (0.20–14.19) NA NA Note:—DMDs indicates disease-modifying drugs; NA, not applicable.
↵a All continuous data are displayed as mean (SD), except the score, disease duration, and lesion volume, which are shown as median (range).
↵b Indicates treatment with disease-modifying drugs; 37.5% (6/16) of patients were treated with teriflunomide; and 25% (4/16), with an anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody (rituximab).
NP Test MS HC P Value Global cognitive function MMSE 27.73 (SD, 2.94) 29.69 (SD, 0.60) .023 MoCA 25.00 (SD, 5.01) 27.88 (SD, 1.71) .051 Processing speed SDMT 36.89 (SD, 15.79) 56.85 (SD, 8.66) <.001 Verbal episode memory AVLT-SFR 7.00 (SD, 3.67) 10.06 (SD, 2.93) .019 AVLT-LFR 7.69 (SD, 4.57) 10.25 (SD, 2.79) .074 AVLT-DI 9.92 (SD, 3.59) 13.00 (SD, 2.33) .011 Executive function VFT 33.67 (SD, 9.85) 42.12 (SD, 8.31) .013 Attention DST 13.73 (SD, 2.24) 16.24 (SD, 1.68) .001 Note:—MMSE indicates Mini-Mental State Examination; MoCA, Montreal Cognitive Assessment; SDMT, Symbol Digit Modalities Test; AVLT, auditory verbal learning test; SFR, short-delayed free recall; LFR, long-delayed free recall; DI, discrimination index; VFT, verbal fluency test; DST, Digit Span Test; NP test, neuropsychological test.
↵a Data are mean (SD).
- Table 3:
Microstructure metrics and fiber statistics of focal WM lesions and whole-brain WMa
WM Lesion ROIs Whole-Brain WM MS HC P Valueb MS HC P Valueb DTI FA 0.35 (SD, 0.06) 0.41 (SD, 0.06) .010 0.39 (SD, 0.02) 0.41 (SD, 0.01) .655 MD 0.92 (SD, 0.17) 0.74 (SD, 0.04) <.001 0.76 (SD, 0.06) 0.74 (SD, 0.03) .334 AD 1.28 (SD, 0.21) 1.08 (SD, 0.04) .002 1.28 (SD, 0.03) 1.07 (SD, 0.03) .327 RD 0.77 (SD, 0.15) 0.57 (SD, 0.06) <.001 0.59 (SD, 0.03) 0.56 (SD, 0.02) .555 NODDI ficvf 0.55 (SD, 0.12) 0.69 (SD, 0.05) .001 0.69 (SD, 0.06) 0.71 (SD, 0.05) .914 ODI 0.30 (SD, 0.07) 0.34 (SD, 0.05) .109 0.34 (SD, 0.02) 0.33 (SD, 0.02) .334 Fiber No. 6308 (1319, 11,641) 7582 (1204, 13,494) .780 199,230 (SD, 46,819) 208,260 (SD, 60,599) .905 Length 35.11 (SD, 12.21) 39.73 (SD, 8.32) .211 22.39 (SD, 6.24) 22.73 (SD, 7.21) .846
