Vol. 5, Issue 1, Part A (2023)

Introduction: Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive, fatal disorder, which signs of motor neuron degeneration in one or more anatomic regions. Post-processing image techniques could be useful to reveal anatomic brain changes in those patients. 
Objective: Describe brain changes of a group of ALS patients through post-processing MRI techniques and correlate it with clinical abnormalities.
Experimental Procedure: Thirty sporadic ALS patients and thirty healthy subjects were recruited, they were paired in age and sex with patients. T₁, T₂, FLAIR and DTI weighted 3T MRI scans were acquired. Tractography, Voxel-Based Morphometry (VBM) and cortical thickness processing analysis were done. Between group comparison and regression analysis were applied.
Results: Tractography revealed that corticospinal tract and optic radiation volumes of ALS patients is lower than healthy subjects (p=0.03), (p=0.04). A number of fibers of evaluated tracts diminishes when disease duration increasing (p=0.00) and when ALSFRS score is worse. VBM revealed brain atrophy on cortical areas, cerebellum, brainstem, deep gray nuclei, corpus callosum, corticospinal tract, internal and external capsule, lower and middle longitudinal fascicle and optical radiation of ALS patients. Cortical thickness analysis showed diminish of mean thickness on bilaterally pre-central gyrus and parietal posterior areas (p=0.03) on ALS patients. It diminishes when disease duration increases (p=0.00) and when ALSFRS score is worse (p=0.00).
Conclusions: We demonstrated that ALS patient’s brain have abnormalities in corticospinal tract, optic radiation, corpus callosum, internal and external capsule, lower and middle longitudinal fascicle; pre and post-central, occipital and medial cortical areas, cerebellum, brainstem and deep gray nuclei.