Tract-specific analysis improves sensitivity of spinal cord diffusion MRI to cross-sectional and longitudinal changes in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Pramod Kumar Pisharady; Lynn E. Eberly; Ian Cheong; Georgios Manousakis; Gaurav Guliani; H. Brent Clark; Mark Bathe; David Walk; Christophe Lenglet

doi:10.1038/s42003-020-1093-z

Tract-specific analysis improves sensitivity of spinal cord diffusion MRI to cross-sectional and longitudinal changes in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Pramod Kumar Pisharady, Lynn E. Eberly, Ian Cheong, Georgios Manousakis, Gaurav Guliani, H. Brent Clark, Mark Bathe, David Walk, Christophe Lenglet

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

12 Scopus citations

Abstract

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a late-onset fatal neurodegenerative disease that causes progressive degeneration of motor neurons in the brain and the spinal cord. Corticospinal tract degeneration is a defining feature of ALS. However, there have been very few longitudinal, controlled studies assessing diffusion MRI (dMRI) metrics in different fiber tracts along the spinal cord in general or the corticospinal tract in particular. Here we demonstrate that a tract-specific analysis, with segmentation of ascending and descending tracts in the spinal cord white matter, substantially increases the sensitivity of dMRI to disease-related changes in ALS. Our work also identifies the tracts and spinal levels affected in ALS, supporting electrophysiologic and pathologic evidence of involvement of sensory pathways in ALS. We note changes in diffusion metrics and cord cross-sectional area, with enhanced sensitivity to disease effects through a multimodal analysis, and with strong correlations between these metrics and spinal components of ALSFRS-R.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	370
Journal	Communications biology
Volume	3
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-020-1093-z
State	Published - Jul 10 2020

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This study was partly supported by funding from the Bob Allison Ataxia Research Center, the Institute for Translational Neuroscience, the Curt O’Hagan ALS/PLS and ALS-Lou Gehrig funds of the University of Minnesota Foundation, NIH grants P41 EB015894, P41 EB027061, P30 NS076408, and NSF Physics of Living Systems grant PHY 1305537. We are grateful to the persons living with ALS, their families, and control participants who volunteered their time; without them this work would not be possible. We acknowledge Valerie Ferment, the clinical study coordinator, and Susan Rolandelli, RN, for study coordination, and Pamela Droberg, NP, for her assistance in recruitment. We also thankfully acknowledge the help received from Dr. Julien Cohen-Adad (Polytechnique Mon-tréal) for customizing the spinal cord toolbox to segment the spinal cord from our diffusion data.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, The Author(s).

Center for Magnetic Resonance Research (CMRR) tags

BFC
ANDI
P41

Publisher link

10.1038/s42003-020-1093-z

Find It

Find It at U of M Libraries

Cite this

@article{d13dff5be806412e898f8b3a12f39a7c,

title = "Tract-specific analysis improves sensitivity of spinal cord diffusion MRI to cross-sectional and longitudinal changes in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis",

abstract = "Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a late-onset fatal neurodegenerative disease that causes progressive degeneration of motor neurons in the brain and the spinal cord. Corticospinal tract degeneration is a defining feature of ALS. However, there have been very few longitudinal, controlled studies assessing diffusion MRI (dMRI) metrics in different fiber tracts along the spinal cord in general or the corticospinal tract in particular. Here we demonstrate that a tract-specific analysis, with segmentation of ascending and descending tracts in the spinal cord white matter, substantially increases the sensitivity of dMRI to disease-related changes in ALS. Our work also identifies the tracts and spinal levels affected in ALS, supporting electrophysiologic and pathologic evidence of involvement of sensory pathways in ALS. We note changes in diffusion metrics and cord cross-sectional area, with enhanced sensitivity to disease effects through a multimodal analysis, and with strong correlations between these metrics and spinal components of ALSFRS-R.",

author = "Pisharady, {Pramod Kumar} and Eberly, {Lynn E.} and Ian Cheong and Georgios Manousakis and Gaurav Guliani and Clark, {H. Brent} and Mark Bathe and David Walk and Christophe Lenglet",

note = "Funding Information: This study was partly supported by funding from the Bob Allison Ataxia Research Center, the Institute for Translational Neuroscience, the Curt O{\textquoteright}Hagan ALS/PLS and ALS-Lou Gehrig funds of the University of Minnesota Foundation, NIH grants P41 EB015894, P41 EB027061, P30 NS076408, and NSF Physics of Living Systems grant PHY 1305537. We are grateful to the persons living with ALS, their families, and control participants who volunteered their time; without them this work would not be possible. We acknowledge Valerie Ferment, the clinical study coordinator, and Susan Rolandelli, RN, for study coordination, and Pamela Droberg, NP, for her assistance in recruitment. We also thankfully acknowledge the help received from Dr. Julien Cohen-Adad (Polytechnique Mon-tr{\'e}al) for customizing the spinal cord toolbox to segment the spinal cord from our diffusion data. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2020, The Author(s).",

year = "2020",

month = jul,

day = "10",

doi = "10.1038/s42003-020-1093-z",

language = "English (US)",

volume = "3",

journal = "Communications biology",

issn = "2399-3642",

publisher = "Springer Nature",

number = "1",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Tract-specific analysis improves sensitivity of spinal cord diffusion MRI to cross-sectional and longitudinal changes in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

AU - Pisharady, Pramod Kumar

AU - Eberly, Lynn E.

AU - Cheong, Ian

AU - Manousakis, Georgios

AU - Guliani, Gaurav

AU - Clark, H. Brent

AU - Bathe, Mark

AU - Walk, David

AU - Lenglet, Christophe

N1 - Funding Information: This study was partly supported by funding from the Bob Allison Ataxia Research Center, the Institute for Translational Neuroscience, the Curt O’Hagan ALS/PLS and ALS-Lou Gehrig funds of the University of Minnesota Foundation, NIH grants P41 EB015894, P41 EB027061, P30 NS076408, and NSF Physics of Living Systems grant PHY 1305537. We are grateful to the persons living with ALS, their families, and control participants who volunteered their time; without them this work would not be possible. We acknowledge Valerie Ferment, the clinical study coordinator, and Susan Rolandelli, RN, for study coordination, and Pamela Droberg, NP, for her assistance in recruitment. We also thankfully acknowledge the help received from Dr. Julien Cohen-Adad (Polytechnique Mon-tréal) for customizing the spinal cord toolbox to segment the spinal cord from our diffusion data. Publisher Copyright: © 2020, The Author(s).

PY - 2020/7/10

Y1 - 2020/7/10

N2 - Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a late-onset fatal neurodegenerative disease that causes progressive degeneration of motor neurons in the brain and the spinal cord. Corticospinal tract degeneration is a defining feature of ALS. However, there have been very few longitudinal, controlled studies assessing diffusion MRI (dMRI) metrics in different fiber tracts along the spinal cord in general or the corticospinal tract in particular. Here we demonstrate that a tract-specific analysis, with segmentation of ascending and descending tracts in the spinal cord white matter, substantially increases the sensitivity of dMRI to disease-related changes in ALS. Our work also identifies the tracts and spinal levels affected in ALS, supporting electrophysiologic and pathologic evidence of involvement of sensory pathways in ALS. We note changes in diffusion metrics and cord cross-sectional area, with enhanced sensitivity to disease effects through a multimodal analysis, and with strong correlations between these metrics and spinal components of ALSFRS-R.

AB - Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a late-onset fatal neurodegenerative disease that causes progressive degeneration of motor neurons in the brain and the spinal cord. Corticospinal tract degeneration is a defining feature of ALS. However, there have been very few longitudinal, controlled studies assessing diffusion MRI (dMRI) metrics in different fiber tracts along the spinal cord in general or the corticospinal tract in particular. Here we demonstrate that a tract-specific analysis, with segmentation of ascending and descending tracts in the spinal cord white matter, substantially increases the sensitivity of dMRI to disease-related changes in ALS. Our work also identifies the tracts and spinal levels affected in ALS, supporting electrophysiologic and pathologic evidence of involvement of sensory pathways in ALS. We note changes in diffusion metrics and cord cross-sectional area, with enhanced sensitivity to disease effects through a multimodal analysis, and with strong correlations between these metrics and spinal components of ALSFRS-R.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85087785919&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85087785919&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1038/s42003-020-1093-z

DO - 10.1038/s42003-020-1093-z

M3 - Article

C2 - 32651439

AN - SCOPUS:85087785919

SN - 2399-3642

VL - 3

JO - Communications biology

JF - Communications biology

IS - 1

M1 - 370

ER -

Tract-specific analysis improves sensitivity of spinal cord diffusion MRI to cross-sectional and longitudinal changes in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Center for Magnetic Resonance Research (CMRR) tags

Publisher link

Find It

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this