Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34149349›Full record

ArticleFrontiers in neuroscience2021

Brainstem Involvement in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: A Combined Structural and Diffusion Tensor MRI Analysis.

Haining Li, Qiuli Zhang, Qianqian Duan, Jiaoting Jin, Fangfang Hu, Jingxia Dang, Ming Zhang

Open access · goldAbstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Frontiers in neuroscience, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
7citing papers in PubMed
1.6field-weighted citation impact, top 14% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

7 citing papers in PubMed, 18 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Review
  2. Review
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Morphological similarity of amygdala-ventral prefrontal pathways represents trait anxiety in younger and older adults.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022
    Article
  6. Article
  7. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Haining LiDepartment of Medical Imaging, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China.
Qiuli ZhangDepartment of Medical Imaging, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China.
Qianqian DuanDepartment of Medical Imaging, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China.
Jiaoting JinDepartment of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China.
Fangfang HuDepartment of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China.
Jingxia DangDepartment of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China.
Ming ZhangDepartment of Medical Imaging, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China.
First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University · CN

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

introductionThe brainstem is an important component in the pathology of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Although neuroimaging studies have shown multiple structural changes in ALS patients, few studies have investigated structural alterations in the brainstem. Herein, we compared the brainstem structure between patients with ALS and healthy controls.

methodsA total of 33 patients with ALS and 33 healthy controls were recruited in this study. T1-weighted and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) were acquired on a 3 Tesla magnetic resonance imaging (3T MRI) scanner. Volumetric and vertex-wised approaches were implemented to assess the differences in the brainstem's morphological features between the two groups. An atlas-based region of interest (ROI) analysis was performed to compare the white matter integrity of the brainstem between the two groups. Additionally, a correlation analysis was used to evaluate the relationship between ALS clinical characteristics and structural features.

resultsVolumetric analyses showed no significant difference in the subregion volume of the brainstem between ALS patients and healthy controls. In the shape analyses, ALS patients had a local abnormal surface contraction in the ventral medulla oblongata and ventral pons. Compared with healthy controls, ALS patients showed significantly lower fractional anisotropy (FA) in the left corticospinal tract (CST) and bilateral frontopontine tracts (FPT) at the brainstem level, and higher radial diffusivity (RD) in bilateral CST and left FPT at the brainstem level by ROI analysis in DTI. Correlation analysis showed that disease severity was positively associated with FA in left CST and left FPT.

conclusionThese findings suggest that the brainstem in ALS suffers atrophy, and degenerative processes in the brainstem may reflect disease severity in ALS. These findings may be helpful for further understanding of potential neural mechanisms in ALS.

Indexed as

amyotrophic lateral sclerosisbrainstemdiffusion tensor imagingmagnetic resonance imagingshape analysis

Identifiers

PMID34149349
PMCPMC8206526
OpenAlexW3168107920

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.