PURPOSE: Our objectives were to assess the abnormalities of subcortical nuclei by combining volume and shape analyses and potential association with cognitive impairment. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Twenty-nine patients with severe ACS of the unilateral internal carotid artery and 31 controls were enrolled between January 2017 to August 2018. All participants underwent a comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation, blood lipid biochemical measurements, and structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to measure subcortical volumes and sub-regional shape deformations. Basic statistics, correction for multiple comparisons. Seventeen ACS patients underwent carotid endarterectomy (CEA) within one week after baseline measurements, cognitive assessments and MRI scans were repeated 6 months after CEA. RESULTS: The ACS patients had higher apolipoprotein B/apolipoprotein A1 (ApoB/ApoA1) ratio and worse performance in all cognitive domains than controls. Moreover, the ACS patients showed more profound thalamic atrophy assessed by shape and volume analysis, especially in the medial dorsal thalamus. No significant differences were found in other subcortical nuclei after multiple comparisons correction. At baseline, thalamic atrophy correlated with cognitive impairment and ApoB/ApoA1 ratio. Furthermore, mediation analysis at baseline showed that the association of carotid intima-media thickness with executive functioning was mediated by thalamic volume. After CEA, cognitive improvement and increase in the bilateral medial dorsal thalamic volume were observed. CONCLUSION: Our study identified the distinct atrophy of subcortical nuclei and their association with cognition in patients with ACS. Assessments of the thalamus by volumetric and shape analysis may provide an early marker for cerebral ischemia and reperfusion after CEA.

• Klíčová slova
• asymptomatic carotid stenosis, cognitive impairment, endarterectomy, magnetic resonance imaging, thalamus,
• MeSH
• asymptomatické nemoci MeSH
• atrofie MeSH
• intimomediální šíře tepenné stěny MeSH
• karotická endarterektomie metody   MeSH
• kognitivní dysfunkce * diagnóza   etiologie   MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• magnetická rezonanční tomografie metody   MeSH
• neuropsychologické testy MeSH
• prognóza MeSH
• senioři MeSH
• stenóza arteria carotis * komplikace   diagnóza   chirurgie   MeSH
• thalamus * diagnostické zobrazování   patologie   MeSH
• velikost orgánu MeSH
• Check Tag
• lidé MeSH
• mužské pohlaví MeSH
• senioři MeSH
• ženské pohlaví MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH