Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40756784›Full record

ArticleFrontiers in human neuroscience2025

Assessment of microstructural abnormalities in gray and white matter of minimal hepatic encephalopathy patients using diffusion kurtosis imaging and their associations with neurocognitive dysfunction.

Qing Sun, Wenliang Fan, Yuan Liu, Zhifeng Kou, Ping Han

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Article in Frontiers in human neuroscience, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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1 · What the graph read from it

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2 · The registry

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3 · Its place in the literature

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Qing SunDepartment of Radiology, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
Wenliang FanDepartment of Radiology, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
Yuan LiuDepartment of Radiology, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
Zhifeng KouDepartment of Biomedical Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ, United States.
Ping HanDepartment of Radiology, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Aims: Although neural activity abnormalities have been reported in cirrhosis patients with minimal hepatic encephalopathy (MHE), the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying microstructural brain alterations remain poorly understood. This prospective study aimed to assess microstructural abnormalities in both gray matter and white matter of MHE patients by using diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI), and to examine associations between these alterations and neurocognitive and clinical measurements. Methods: Thirty-one Hepatitis B Virus-related cirrhotic patients without MHE (NMHE), thirty Hepatitis B Virus-related cirrhotic patients with MHE, and 59 gender-, age-, education-matched healthy controls underwent diffusional kurtosis imaging and neurocognitive assessments. We used tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) analysis to estimate group differences of white matter (WM) microstructure and voxel-based morphometry analysis to determine gray matter (GM) abnormalities. Correlation analyses were further performed to assess relationships between altered diffusional parameters and clinical variables, such as neurocognitive performances and disease duration. Results: The TBSS analysis results showed that MHE patients had significantly decreased fractional anisotropy (FA) in the temporal part of the left superior longitudinal fasciculus and decreased kurtosis fractional anisotropy (KFA) in the left corticospinal tract and anterior thalamic radiation ( Conclusion: Minimal hepatic encephalopathy patients demonstrated microstructural abnormalities in both WM and GM, predominantly affecting regions involved in cognitive, attention, and motor functions. These findings suggest that disruption of microstructural integrity may underlie the pathophysiological underpinnings of neurocognitive dysfunction in MHE, offering neuroimaging evidence for disease mechanisms.

Indexed as

diffusion kurtosis imaginggray matterminimal hepatic encephalopathytract-based spatial statisticsvoxel-based morphometrywhite matter

Identifiers

PMID40756784
PMCPMC12315561

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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 Socratic graph.