Cerebral White Matter Connectivity in Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis: A Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study
David C. Noriega-Gonzalez,
Jesús Crespo,
Francisco Ardura,
Juan Calabia-del Campo,
Carlos Alberola-Lopez,
Rodrigo de Luis-García,
Alberto Caballero-García,
Alfredo Córdova
Affiliations
David C. Noriega-Gonzalez
Department of Surgery, Ophthalmology, Otorhinolaryngology and Physiotherapy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Valladolid, 47005 Valladolid, Spain
Jesús Crespo
Traumatology and Orthopaedics Department, Hospital Clínico Universitario de Valladolid, 47005 Valladolid, Spain
Francisco Ardura
Traumatology and Orthopaedics Department, Hospital Clínico Universitario de Valladolid, 47005 Valladolid, Spain
Juan Calabia-del Campo
Department of Radiology Hospital Clínico Universitario de Valladolid, 47005 Valladolid, Spain
Carlos Alberola-Lopez
ETSI Telecomunicación, Image Processing Laboratory. University of Valladolid, 47005 Valladolid, Spain
Rodrigo de Luis-García
ETSI Telecomunicación, Image Processing Laboratory. University of Valladolid, 47005 Valladolid, Spain
Alberto Caballero-García
Department of Anatomy and Radiology, Health Sciences Faculty, GIR: “Physical Exercise and Aging”, University of Valladolid, Campus Universitario “Los Pajaritos”, 42004 Soria, Spain
Alfredo Córdova
Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Physiology, Health Sciences Faculty, GIR: “Physical Exercise and Aging”, University of Valladolid, Campus Universitario “Los Pajaritos”, 42004 Soria, Spain
Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) is characterized by the radiographic presence of a frontal plane curve, with a magnitude greater than 10° (Cobb technique). Diffusion MRI can be employed to assess the cerebral white matter. The aim of this study was to analyze, by means of MRI, the presence of any alteration in the connectivity of cerebral white matter in AIS patients. In this study, 22 patients with AIS participated. The imaging protocol consisted in T1 and diffusion-weighted acquisitions. Based on the information from one of the diffusion acquisitions, a whole brain tractography was performed with the MRtrix tool. Tractography is a method to deduce the trajectory of fiber bundles through the white matter based on the diffusion MRI data. By combining cortical segmentation with tractography, a connectivity matrix of size 84 × 84 was constructed using FA (fractional anisotropy), and the number of streamlines as connectomics metrics. The results obtained support the hypothesis that alterations in cerebral white matter connectivity in patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) exist. We consider that the application of diffusion MRI, together with transcranial magnetic stimulation neurophysiologically, is useful to search the etiology of AIS.
