Acute infarcts cause focal thinning in remote cortex via degeneration of connecting fiber tracts.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To study remote effects distant from acute ischemic infarcts by measuring longitudinal changes of cortical thickness in connected brain regions as well as changes in microstructural integrity in connecting fiber tracts.

Methods

Thirty-two patients (mean age 71 years) underwent a standardized protocol including multimodal MRI and clinical assessment both at stroke onset and 6 months after the event. Cortex connected to acute infarcts was identified by probabilistic diffusion tensor tractography starting from the acute lesion. Changes of cortical thickness were measured using the longitudinal stream of FreeSurfer. Microstructural damage in white matter tracts was assessed by changes of mean diffusivity.

Results

We found focal cortical thinning specifically in

SUBMITTER: Duering M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4409580 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature