Highlights
- •We studied the corpus callosum (CC) index (CCI) and fractional anisotropy (FA) of the CC.
- •CCI and FA were significantly correlated with whole brain volume (BV) in MS patients.
- •We identified optimal cutoff values for the CCI and FA of the CC to categorize MS patients.
- •The cutoff values categorized MS patients into mild, moderate, or severe BV loss groups.
- •The cutoff values classified MS patients with high sensitivity and specificity.
Abstract
Objectives
Recent studies suggest that parameters of the corpus callosum (CC), such as the CC
index (CCI) and fractional anisotropy (FA) of the CC, may be related to the degree
of brain volume loss (BVL) in MS patients; however, cutoff values that determine the
degree of BVL have not been set.
Methods
Seventy-five MS patients and 21 healthy controls (HCs) underwent volumetric MRI examinations.
MS patients were also evaluated for T2 lesion load, the CCI, and FA of the CC. Among
the 75 MS patients, 20 had undergone cognitive assessments with the Symbol Digit Modalities
Test (SDMT). After 75 MS patients were categorized into mild, moderate, or severe
BVL subgroups according to our previous report, we performed receiver operating characteristic
analysis to determine the cutoff values of CCI and FA, categorizing the MS patients
into the three subgroups.
Results
The volume of the CC was significantly reduced in MS patients compared to that in
HCs. The CCI and FA were significantly associated with EDSS, disease duration, clinical
phenotype, T2-lesion load, and whole brain volume. The FA was significantly correlated
with the SDMT score. We identified optimal cutoff values for the CCI and FA of 0.32
(85% sensitivity, 92% specificity) and 0.39 (100% sensitivity, 92% specificity), respectively,
which discriminated the severe BVL group from others, and 0.385 (84% sensitivity,
74% specificity) and 0.45 (81% sensitivity, 89% specificity), respectively, which
discriminated the mild BVL group from others.
Conclusion
The CCI and FA cutoff values may be useful for evaluating the degree of MS brain atrophy
in clinical practice.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: July 08, 2020
Accepted:
July 7,
2020
Received in revised form:
July 2,
2020
Received:
May 15,
2020
Identification
Copyright
© 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
