Study Of White Matter Damage In Patients With Moderate To Severe Obstructive Sleep Apnea Hypopnea Syndrome

Objective To study the damage of white matter in patients with moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome(OSAHS)and investigate the possible mechanism.Methods 21 patients with moderate to severe OSAHS(OSAHS group)and 21 cases of healthy volunteers(control group)were collected.MRI plain scan and DTI scan were performed,and the DTI parameters were obtained,which include fractional anisotropy(FA),radial diffusivity(RD),axial diffusivity(AD)and mean diffusivity(MD).The brain regions which were significantly different in DTI parameters were analysised by Tract-based Spatial Statistics(TBSS)method.The Montreal Cognitive Scale(Mo CA)was used to evaluate the two groups of subjects.Pearson correlation analysis was used to observe whether the cognitive score was correlated with the changes of DTI parameters.Results Compared with the control group,the FA values of multiple brain regions in OSAHS group were decreased,while the MD and RD values were increased,which covering all three major fiber types(including connecting fibers within the ipsilateral hemisphere,corpus callosum and projecting fibers from cerebral cortex to subcortical structures).The range of AD values decreased was relatively small,which were confined to brainstem,bilateral cerebral peduncle and posterior limb of internal capsule(all P<0.05).Cognitive score results showed no significant difference between the two groups of subjects,and it is not correlated between the Mo CA score results and DTI parameters’ changes in the different brain regions.Conclusion There has widespread white matter damage in OSAHS group,and mainly closely related to the integrity of white matter fiber damage and demyelination.It can be evaluated the white matter damage in patients with moderate to severe OSAHS by using the methed of TBSS to analyze the DTI parameters.