Frontotemporal Cortical Thinning in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

A. d'Ambrosio; A. Gallo; F. Trojsi; D. Corbo; F. Esposito; M. Cirillo; M.R. Monsurrò; G. Tedeschi

doi:10.3174/ajnr.A3753

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Fig 1.
Right hemisphere, lateral surface. Areas showing a significant cortical thinning in patients with ALS (P < .05) are colored in blue. Areas 1–4 are localized in the frontal region. Area 5 is localized in the temporal region.
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Fig 2.
Left hemisphere, lateral surface. Areas showing a significant cortical thinning in patients with ALS (P < .05) are colored in blue. Areas 1–11 are localized in the frontal region. CTh in area 1 (orbitofrontal lateral cortex) correlated with disease disability (P = .04).
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Fig 3.
Right hemisphere, medial surface. Areas showing a significant cortical thinning in patients with ALS (P < .05) are colored in blue. Areas 1–4 are localized in the frontal region. Areas 5 and 8 are localized in the temporal region. Areas 6 and 7 are localized in the parietooccipital region. CTh in area 4 (premotor cortex) correlated with disease duration (P = .007).
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Fig 4.
Left hemisphere, medial surface. Areas showing a significant cortical thinning in patients with ALS (P < .05) are colored in blue. Areas 1–4 are localized in the frontal region. Areas 7 and 8 are localized in the temporal region. Areas 5 and 6 are localized in the parietooccipital region. CTh in area 8 (inferior temporal and parahippocampal cortex) correlated with the rate of disease progression (P = .0265).

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Table 1:

Demographics and clinical features

	Group
	HC	ALS
n	18	20
M/F	10/8	10/10
Mean age, y (SD)	60 (10.5)	61.5 (9.1)
Disease duration, mean y (SD)	n/a	2.6 (2.7)
Upper limbs onset	n/a	10
Lower limbs onset	n/a	10
ALSFRS-R, mean (SD)	n/a	36.2 (8.7)
48-ALSFRS-R/months of disease duration, mean (SD)	n/a	0.64 (0.7)
UMN score, mean (SD)	n/a	7.1 (3.9)
FrSBe, mean (SD)	n/a	102.3 (18.5)

Note:—n/a indicates not applicable; SD, standard deviation.

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Table 2:

Spatial coordinates, extent, and average CTh of areas showing significant cortical thinning between patients with ALS and HCs

Area	Talairach Coordinates (x, y, z)	Surface Extension (mm²)	ALS Mean CTh (mm)	HC Mean CTh (mm)
	Right hemisphere, lateral surface (see Fig 1 for reference)
1	0, 97, −35	178	2.778	2.891
2	13, 74, −33	713	2.482	2.687
3	−12, −2, 69	39	2.462	2.793
4	22, 13, 39	15	2.662	2.952
5	23, 27, −69	269	3.152	3.387
	Left hemisphere, lateral surface (see Fig 2 for reference)
1	5, 85, −45	501	2.398	2.651
2	−13, 78, −32	37	3.050	3.134
3	−14, 88, −17	65	2.039	2.323
4	−20, 73, −3	206	1.860	2.116
5	−12, 76, 13	69	2.527	2.796
6	−12, 38, −42	175	3.350	3.652
7	−14, 37, −16	154	2.271	2.434
8	−22, 3, 43	22	1.389	1.557
9	11, 28, 61	57	2.164	2.522
10	−40, −4, 15	232	2.569	2.817
11	−33, −21, 31	152	2.293	2.507
	Right hemisphere, medial surface (see Fig 3 for reference)
1	−32, 82, 0	116	2.250	2.516
2	−31, 62, 26	131	2.347	2.510
3	−31, 40, 40	139	2.336	2.664
4	−31, 15, 38	67	2.187	2.450
5	2, 11, −64	159	3.342	3.970
6	−29, −57, 18	72	2.536	2.724
7	−25, −93, −19	204	1.571	1.797
8	17, −44, −52	65	2.697	2.928
	Left hemisphere, medial surface (see Fig 4 for reference)
1	28, 93, −39	179	2.288	2.668
2	33, 51, 24	55	2.063	2.509
3	30, 41, 49	40	2.769	2.929
4	28, 13, 66	44	2.407	2.747
5	28, −68, 25	67	2.411	2.614
6	28, −63, 17	43	2.634	2.769
7	20, −102, −28	155	1.685	1.826
8	−4, −3, −64	558	3.012	3.470