Frontiers in Neuroscience (Apr 2022)

Alteration of Cortical Volume and Thickness in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

  • Kiran Thapaliya,
  • Kiran Thapaliya,
  • Sonya Marshall-Gradisnik,
  • Donald Staines,
  • Jiasheng Su,
  • Leighton Barnden

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2022.848730
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 16

Abstract

Read online

Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) patients suffer from neurocognitive impairment. In this study, we investigated cortical volumetric and thickness changes in ME/CFS patients and healthy controls (HC). We estimated mean surface-based cortical volume and thickness from 18 ME/CFS patients who met International Consensus Criteria (ICC) and 26 HC using FreeSurfer. Vertex-wise analysis showed significant reductions in the caudal middle frontal gyrus (p = 0.0016) and precuneus (p = 0.013) thickness in ME/CFS patients compared with HC. Region based analysis of sub-cortical volumes found that amygdala volume (p = 0.002) was significantly higher in ME/CFS patients compared with HC. We also performed interaction-with-group regressions with clinical measures to test for cortical volume and thickness correlations in ME/CFS with opposite slopes to HC (abnormal). ME/CFS cortical volume and thickness regressions with fatigue, heart-rate variability, heart rate, sleep disturbance score, respiratory rate, and cognitive performance were abnormal. Our study demonstrated different cortical volume and thickness in ME/CFS patients and showed abnormal cortical volume and thickness regressions with key symptoms of ME/CFS patients.

Keywords