ArticleFrontiers in neuroanatomy2021
Thalamic Structural Connectivity Abnormalities in Minimal Hepatic Encephalopathy.
Article in Frontiers in neuroanatomy, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 7 citations in OpenAlex.
- Connectome-based mapping of gray matter abnormalities in hepatic encephalopathy.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Article
- Assessment of microstructural abnormalities in gray and white matter of minimal hepatic encephalopathy patients using diffusion kurtosis imaging and their associations with neurocognitive dysfunction.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2025Article
- Improved cognition after rifaximin treatment is associated with changes in intra- and inter-brain network functional connectivity.Journal of translational medicine · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
methodsDiffusion tensor imaging (DTI)-based probabilistic tractography was employed to determine the structural linkage between the thalamus and cortical/subcortical regions in 52 cirrhotic patients [22 with MHE; 30 without MHE (NHE)] and 30 controls. We measured these thalamic connections, which included connectivity strength (CS), fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), axial diffusivity (AD), and radial diffusivity (RD), and then compared these among the three groups. Neurocognitive assessment was also performed. Correlation analysis was conducted to investigate the relationship between neurocognitive performance and the above measurements. Classification analysis was performed to determine whether thalamic connection measurements can distinguish MHE from NHE.
resultsThe probabilistic tractography revealed thalamic structural connections, which were disrupted in cirrhotic patients (as reflected by a decrease in CS/FA and an increase in MD/AD/RD). Abnormal thalamic connections primarily involved the prefrontal cortex, sensorimotor cortex, parietal cortex, medial temporal cortex and hippocampus, and striatum. Thalamic connectivity abnormalities deteriorated from NHE to MHE, and they were correlated with patients' neurocognitive performance. The moderate classification accuracy was obtained using CS and MD as discriminating indexes.
conclusionOur results demonstrated the altered thalamic structural connectivity involving both cortical and subcortical regions in MHE, which could be regarded as representative of MHE-related widespread impairments in white matter pathways. The disturbed thalamic connectivity may underlie the mechanism of cognitive deficits in MHE and may potentially be utilized as a biomarker for diagnosing MHE and in monitoring disease progression. In addition to thalamic-cortical/subcortical connections, further studies are recommended to explore the structural alterations in other white matter pathways in MHE.
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