BACKGROUND: Structural cortical networks (SCNs) represent patterns of coordinated morphological modifications in cortical areas, and they present the advantage of being extracted from previously acquired clinical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. SCNs have shown pathophysiological changes in many brain disorders, including multiple sclerosis. OBJECTIVE: To investigate alterations of SCNs at the individual level in patients with clinically isolated syndrome (CIS), thereby assessing their clinical relevance. METHODS: We analyzed baseline data collected in a prospective multicenter (MAGNIMS) study. CIS patients (n = 60) and healthy controls (n = 38) underwent high-resolution 3T MRI. Measures of disability and cognitive processing were obtained for patients. Single-subject SCNs were extracted from brain 3D-T1 weighted sequences; global and local network parameters were computed. RESULTS: Compared to healthy controls, CIS patients showed altered small-world topology, an efficient network organization combining dense local clustering with relatively few long-distance connections. These disruptions were worse for patients with higher lesion load and worse cognitive processing speed. Alterations of centrality measures and clustering of connections were observed in specific cortical areas in CIS patients when compared with healthy controls. CONCLUSION: Our study indicates that SCNs can be used to demonstrate clinically relevant alterations of connectivity in CIS.

• MeSH
• Demyelinating Diseases * diagnostic imaging   MeSH
• Cognition MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Magnetic Resonance Imaging MeSH
• Brain diagnostic imaging   MeSH
• Neural Pathways diagnostic imaging   MeSH
• Prospective Studies MeSH
• Check Tag
• Humans MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Multicenter Study MeSH
• Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH

We provide here normative values of yearly percentage brain volume change (PBVC/y) as obtained with Structural Imaging Evaluation, using Normalization, of Atrophy, a widely used open-source software, developing a PBVC/y calculator for assessing the deviation from the expected PBVC/y in patients with neurological disorders. We assessed multicenter (34 centers, 11 acquisition protocols) magnetic resonance imaging data of 720 healthy participants covering the whole adult lifespan (16-90 years). Data of 421 participants with a follow-up > 6 months were used to obtain the normative values for PBVC/y and data of 392 participants with a follow-up <1 month were selected to assess the intrasubject variability of the brain volume measurement. A mixed model evaluated PBVC/y dependence on age, sex, and magnetic resonance imaging parameters (scan vendor and magnetic field strength). PBVC/y was associated with age (p < 0.001), with 60- to 70-year-old participants showing twice more volume decrease than participants aged 30-40 years. PBVC/y was also associated with magnetic field strength, with higher decreases when measured by 1.5T than 3T scanners (p < 0.001). The variability of PBVC/y normative percentiles was narrower as the interscan interval was longer (e.g., 80th normative percentile was 50% smaller for participants with 2-year than with 1-year follow-up). The use of these normative data, eased by the freely available calculator, might help in better discriminating pathological from physiological conditions in the clinical setting.

• MeSH
• Atrophy MeSH
• Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging MeSH
• Longevity * MeSH
• Adult MeSH
• Middle Aged MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Adolescent MeSH
• Young Adult MeSH
• Brain diagnostic imaging   pathology   MeSH
• Multicenter Studies as Topic MeSH
• Retrospective Studies MeSH
• Aged, 80 and over MeSH
• Aged MeSH
• Aging pathology   MeSH
• Organ Size MeSH
• Imaging, Three-Dimensional MeSH
• Check Tag
• Adult MeSH
• Middle Aged MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Adolescent MeSH
• Young Adult MeSH
• Male MeSH
• Aged, 80 and over MeSH
• Aged MeSH
• Female MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH