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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Med.
Sec. Rheumatology
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2024.1468910
This article is part of the Research Topic Neuro-Immune Interplay: Unraveling the Complexities of Neurological Complications and Immunology View all 6 articles

Comparison of volumetric brain analysis in subjects with rheumatoid arthritis and ulcerative colitis

Provisionally accepted
Jennifer Cox Jennifer Cox 1*Marius De Groot Marius De Groot 1,2Matthew J. Kempton Matthew J. Kempton 1,3Steven Williams Steven Williams 1James H. Cole James H. Cole 4,5
  • 1 Centre for Neuroimaging Sciences, King’s College London, Camberwell, England, United Kingdom
  • 2 Groover Consulting, Rotterdam, Netherlands
  • 3 Department of Psychosis Studies, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom
  • 4 Dementia Research Center, University College London, London, England, United Kingdom
  • 5 Centre for Medical Image Computing, Department of Computer Science, University College London, London, United Kingdom

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and ulcerative colitis (UC) are two autoimmune diseases where patients report high levels of fatigue, pain, and depression. The effect of systemic inflammation from these diseases is likely affecting the brain, however, it is unknown whether there are measurable neuroanatomical changes and whether these are a contributing factor to these central symptoms.Methods: We included 258 RA patients with 774 age and sex matched controls and 249 UC patients with 747 age and sex matched controls in a case control study utilising the UK Biobank dataset. We used imaging derived phenotypes (IDPs) to determine whether there were differences in (1) hippocampal volume and (2) additional subcortical brain volumes between patients compared to controls and if there were common regions affected between these two diseases.Results: Patients with UC had moderately smaller hippocampi compared to age and sex matched controls (difference: 134.15 mm 3 , SD  64.76, p = 0.035). This result was not seen in RA patients. RA patients had a significantly smaller amygdala volume than age and sex matched controls (difference: 91.27 mm 3 , SD  30.85, p = 0.0021, adjusted p value = 0.012). This result was not seen in UC patients. All other subcortical structures analysed were comparable between the patients and control groups.Conclusions: These results indicate there are subcortical brain differences between UC, RA and controls but different regions of the limbic system are preferentially affected by UC and RA. This study may provide evidence for different neurodegenerative mechanisms in distinct autoimmune diseases.

    Keywords: Autoimmune Diseases, brain volumetry, ulcerative colitis, Rheumatoid arthritis, systemic inflammation, Magnetic Resonance Imaging

    Received: 22 Jul 2024; Accepted: 04 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Cox, De Groot, Kempton, Williams and Cole. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Jennifer Cox, Centre for Neuroimaging Sciences, King’s College London, Camberwell, SE5 8AF, England, United Kingdom

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.