Correlation Between The Volume And Perfusion Changes Of Deep Gray Matter Nucleiand Clinical Score In Patients With Relapsing-remitting Multiple Sclerosis

Objective:To investigate deep gray matter perfusion and volume changes in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis?RRMS?with 3D pseudo-continuous arterial spin labeling?3D pCASL?and voxel-based morphometry?VBM?,and to explore the relationship between the changed parameters of deep gray matter and expanded disability status scale?EDSS?and neuropsychological scale scores.Methods:Totally 36 RRMS patients?RRMS group?and 50 healthy volunteers?control group?were enrolled and tested with EDSS scale and neuropsychological scale to evaluate degree of disability and memory function.All subjects underwent 3D T₁WI and 3D pCASL,and the images were pretreated with SPM 8 and VBM 8 software on the Matlab platform.REST statistical software was used to analyze the changes of deep gray matter volume and perfusion in RRMS patients,and further extraction of deep gray matter volume,perfusion parameter values in significantly changed brain regions,and correlation analysis was done for EDSS and neuropsychological scores.Results:Comparison with the control group,the volume of bilateral thalamus,hippocampus,putamen,pallidum,amygdala,caudate decreased significantly in RRMS group?all P<0.05,FDR correction?,and the cerebral blood flow?CBF?of the bilateral thalamus and caudate decreased significantly in RRMS group?all P<0.05,FDR correction?.In RRMS group,the volume of left and right thalamus,and the cerebral blood flow of right thalamus were positively correlated with symbol digit modalities test scores?r_s=0.482?0.497?0.413,all P<0.05?,while the cerebral blood flow of right thalamus was positively correlated with Rey auditory verbal learning test-immediate recall scores?r_s=0.359,P<0.05?.Conclusion:Volume and perfusion of deep gray matter were changed in RRMS patients,and the decrease volume and perfusion associated with impairment of memory function.