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Regional cortical thickness and subcortical volume changes in patients with metabolic syndrome

Brain Imaging and Behavior volume 9, pages 588–596 (2015)Cite this article

Abstract

Although previous studies have demonstrated an association between metabolic syndrome (MS) and changes in the integrity of cerebral white matter, no study has evaluated cortical thickness or subcortical volumes in MS with MRI. The purpose of our study was to investigate changes in cortical thickness and subcortical volume in an asymptomatic MS population. A total of 86 asymptomatic subjects (40 patients with MS and 46 subjects without MS) underwent 3T brain MRI scanning, and cortical thickness was compared between the groups across multiple locations. The subcortical volumes were also compared on a structure-by-structure basis. ANCOVA adjusted for age, education, total intracranial volume (TIV), and gender revealed significant volume reductions in the right nucleus accumbens in the MS group compared with the control group. The MS group showed a significant reduction in mean cortical thickness and volume in both hemispheres compared with controls. A group comparison analysis of the regional cortical thickness between the two groups also revealed significant reductions in cortical thickness in the MS group in the left insular, superior parietal, postcentral, entorhinal, and right superior parietal cortices compared with those of the control group (all comparisons p < 0.05, FDR corrected). We demonstrated a significant reduction in cortical and subcortical areas in MS patients, especially in areas involved in body weight control and cognitive function. Our results suggest an initial neurodegenerative process according to metabolic syndrome even in the preclinical stage, and further prospective studies are required to evaluate this process.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the financial support of the St.Vincent’s hospital, research institute of medical science foundation (SVHR-2013-03), and Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning (2014R1A1A1007004).

Conflict of interest

Sang-Wook Song, Ju-Hye Chung, Jun Seung Rho, Yun-Ah Lee, Hyun-Kook Lim, Sung-Goo Kang, Ha-Na Kim, Ji Eun Kim, and Se-Hong Kimn have no actual or potential conflicts of interest for any of the authors on this manuscript.

Informed Consent

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, and the applicable revisions at the time of the investigation. Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study.

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Affiliations

  1. Department of Family Medicine, St. Vincent’s Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, 93 Jungbudaero, Paldal-gu, Suwon, Gyeonggi-do, 442-723, Korea

    Sang-Wook Song, Jun Seung Rho, Yun-Ah Lee, Sung-Goo Kang, Ha-Na Kim, Ji Eun Kim & Se-Hong Kim

  2. Department of Family Medicine, Uijeongbu St. Mary’s Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Uijeongbu, Korea

    Ju-Hye Chung

  3. Department of Neuropsychiatry, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea

    Hyun-Kook Lim

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  1. Sang-Wook Song
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  2. Ju-Hye Chung
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Correspondence to Se-Hong Kim.

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The first two authors contributed equally to this work.

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Song, SW., Chung, JH., Rho, J.S. et al. Regional cortical thickness and subcortical volume changes in patients with metabolic syndrome. Brain Imaging and Behavior 9, 588–596 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-014-9311-2

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Keywords

  • Metabolic syndrome
  • Cortical thickness
  • Subcortical volume
  • MRI