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

Thapaliya, Kiran; Marshall‐Gradisnik, Sonya; Staines, Donald; Su, Jen‐Je; Barnden, Leighton

doi:10.3389/fnins.2022.848730

Cited by 8 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 55 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…We observed a larger volume for the whole brainstem and pons in ME/CFS patients compared with HC. Previous studies in ME/CFS patients have reported lower mean diffusivity in the pons (Thapaliya et al, 2021), and higher T1/T2 signal intensity in the medial lemniscus and cortical spinal tract (Thapaliya et al, 2020) that is sensitive to the level of myelination or iron.…”

Section: Me/cfs Vs Hc Group Comparisonmentioning

confidence: 86%

“…The symptom severity of ME/CFS was associated with brainstem dysfunction (Barnden et al, 2016). MRI studies showed lower mean diffusivity (Thapaliya et al, 2021), higher signal intensity (Barnden et al, 2018;Thapaliya et al, 2020), and impaired brainstem connectivity (Barnden et al, 2019) in the brainstem regions of ME/CFS patients. The brainstem regulates respiratory, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, and neurological processes and its impairment can explain the overlapping symptoms of ME/CFS and long COVID.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is non-invasive, can detect subtle changes in brain structure, and has been used to study brain dysfunction in ME/CFS and COVID patients. Recently, an ME/CFS study demonstrated increased hippocampal subfield volumes (Thapaliya et al, 2022b) and reduced caudal middle frontal volume and precuneus thickness (Thapaliya et al, 2022a). Global differences in gray and white matter volume were observed in ME/CFS (de Lange et al, 2005), although not in all studies (Barnden et al, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Brainstem volume changes in myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome and long COVID patients

et al. 2023

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) and long COVID patients have overlapping neurological, autonomic, pain, and post-exertional symptoms. We compared volumes of brainstem regions for 10 ME/CFS (CCC or ICC criteria), 8 long COVID (WHO Delphi consensus), and 10 healthy control (HC) subjects on 3D, T1-weighted MRI images acquired using sub-millimeter isotropic resolution using an ultra-high field strength of 7 Tesla. Group comparisons with HC detected significantly larger volumes in ME/CFS for pons (p = 0.004) and whole brainstem (p = 0.01), and in long COVID for pons (p = 0.003), superior cerebellar peduncle (p = 0.009), and whole brainstem (p = 0.005). No significant differences were found between ME/CFS and long COVID volumes. In ME/CFS, we detected positive correlations between the pons and whole brainstem volumes with “pain” and negative correlations between the midbrain and whole brainstem volumes with “breathing difficulty.” In long COVID patients a strong negative relationship was detected between midbrain volume and “breathing difficulty.” Our study demonstrated an abnormal brainstem volume in both ME/CFS and long COVID consistent with the overlapping symptoms.

show abstract

Section: Me/cfs Vs Hc Group Comparisonmentioning

confidence: 86%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Brainstem volume changes in myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome and long COVID patients

et al. 2023

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Imaging studies in patients with ME have shown alterations in cortical and subcortical volumes, both positive and negative findings due to methodological variations [ 48 ]. A recent MRI study on cortical thickness and brain volumes found reduced cortical volumes and thickness in patients with ME compared with a healthy control group, and reductions correlated with fatigue [ 21 ]. Unlike these studies, we were not able to detect any differences between patients and controls neither in an extensive neuropsychological assessment covering different cognitive domains, nor in cortical thickness and brain volumes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The description of symptoms in PLDS resemble the description of myalgic encephalopathy (ME)/chronic fatigue syndrome, a condition also characterized by disabling fatigue, pain and malaise. Like PLDS, the etiology of ME remains unknown [ 19 ], and studies using quantitative MRI analysis on patients with chronic fatigue syndrome suggest alterations in grey and white matter [ 20 ], and reduced cortical volume and thickness in regions involved in attention, inhibition and memory retrieval [ 21 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of cognitive function, structural brain changes and fatigue 6 months after treatment of neuroborreliosis

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background Complete recovery after adequately treated neuroborreliosis is common, but studies report that some patients experience persistent symptoms like self-reported cognitive problems and fatigue. Persisting symptoms are often termed post-Lyme disease syndrome, of which etiology is not clearly understood. The aim of this study was to investigate cognitive function, possible structural changes in brain regions and level of fatigue. We have not found previous studies on neuroborreliosis that use standardized neuropsychological tests and MRI with advanced image processing to investigate if there are subtle regional changes in cortical thickness and brain volumes after treatment. Methods We examined 68 patients treated for neuroborreliosis 6 months earlier and 66 healthy controls, with a comprehensive neuropsychological test protocol, quantitative structural MRI analysis of the brain and Fatigue Severity Scale. Results We found no differences between the groups in either cognitive function, cortical thickness or brain volumes. The patients had higher score on Fatigue Severity Scale 3.8 vs. 2.9 (p = 0.001), and more patients (25.4%) than controls (5%) had severe fatigue (p = 0.002), but neither mean score nor proportion of patients with severe fatigue differed from findings in the general Norwegian population. Conclusion The prognosis regarding cognitive function, brain MRI findings and fatigue after adequately treated neuroborreliosis is favorable.

show abstract

Hypothalamus Connectivity in Adolescent Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Byrne,

Knight,

Josev

et al. 2024

J of Neuroscience Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Adolescent Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) is a disabling illness of unknown etiology. Increasing evidence suggests hypothalamic involvement in ME/CFS pathophysiology, which has rarely been explored using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the condition. This work aimed to use MRI to examine hypothalamus connectivity in adolescents with ME/CFS and explore how this relates to fatigue severity and illness duration. 25 adolescents with ME/CFS and 23 healthy controls completed a neuroimaging protocol consisting of structural and multishell diffusion‐weighted imaging sequences, in addition to the PedsQL Multidimensional Fatigue Scale to assess fatigue severity. Information about illness duration was acquired at diagnosis. Preprocessing and streamlines tractography was performed using QSIPrep combined with a custom parcellation scheme to create structural networks. The number (degree) and weight (strength) of connections between lateralized hypothalamus regions and cortical and subcortical nodes were extracted, and relationships between connectivity measures, fatigue severity, and illness duration were performed using Bayesian regression models. We observed weak‐to‐moderate evidence of increased degree, but not strength, of connections from the bilateral anterior‐inferior (left: pd [%] = 99.18, median [95% CI] = −22.68[−40.96 to 4.45]; right: pd [%] = 99.86, median [95% CI] = −23.35[−38.47 to 8.20]), left anterior‐superior (pd [%] = 99.33, median [95% CI] = −18.83[−33.45 to 4.07]) and total left hypothalamus (pd [%] = 99.44, median [95% CI] = −47.18[−83.74 to 11.03]) in the ME/CFS group compared with controls. Conversely, bilateral posterior hypothalamus degree decreased with increasing ME/CFS illness duration (left: pd [%] = 98.13, median [95% CI]: −0.47[−0.89 to 0.03]; right: pd [%] = 98.50, median [95% CI]:‐0.43[−0.82 to 0.05]). Finally, a weak relationship between right intermediate hypothalamus connectivity strength and fatigue severity was identified in the ME/CFS group (pd [%] = 99.35, median [95% CI] = −0.28[−0.51 to 0.06]), which was absent in controls. These findings suggest changes in hypothalamus connectivity may occur in adolescents with ME/CFS, warranting further investigation.

show abstract

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

Cited by 8 publications

References 55 publications

Brainstem volume changes in myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome and long COVID patients

Brainstem volume changes in myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome and long COVID patients

Assessment of cognitive function, structural brain changes and fatigue 6 months after treatment of neuroborreliosis

Hypothalamus Connectivity in Adolescent Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About