AUTHOR=Guo Jiuqing , OuYang Lirong , Wang Xiaoyi , Liao Weihua , Huang Qing , He Wei , Zhou Gaofeng , Yang Shuai 

TITLE=Preliminary Study of Subclinical Brain Alterations in Patients With Asymptomatic Carotid Vulnerable Plaques Using Intravoxel Incoherent Motion Imaging by Voxelwise Comparison: A Study of Whole-Brain Imaging Measures

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Neuroscience

VOLUME=14

YEAR=2020

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnins.2020.562830

DOI=10.3389/fnins.2020.562830

ISSN=1662-453X

ABSTRACT=<sec><title>Objective</title><p>To preliminarily explore subclinical brain alterations in an asymptomatic carotid vulnerable plaque group based on intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) imaging through voxelwise comparison in the whole brain.</p></sec><sec><title>Materials and Methods</title><p>Forty-nine elderly participants underwent multi-<italic>b</italic>-value DWI, of whom 24 participants with asymptomatic carotid vulnerable plaques and &lt;50% stenosis served as the test group, while the rest served as the healthy control group. After fitting the double-exponential model, slow ADC (Ds) and the fraction of fast ADC (<italic>f</italic>) values of the whole brain were obtained, which then were compared in a voxelwise manner by two-sample <italic>t</italic>-test. Multiple comparisons were corrected by the family-wise error (FWE) method with a corrected threshold of <italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.05. Pearson correlations between IVIM parameters in altered brain regions and blood pressure, glucose, lipid, and homocysteine were calculated.</p></sec><sec><title>Results</title><p>For the test group, the <italic>Z</italic>-normalized Ds values were significantly higher in the left median cingulate and paracingulate gyrus (DCG.L), posterior cingulate gyrus (PCG. L), and left precuneus gyrus (PCUN.L) (cluster size = 156) and in the left middle frontal gyrus (MFG.L), orbital middle frontal gyrus (ORBmid.L), and superior frontal gyrus (SFG.L) (cluster size = 165); the <italic>Z</italic>-normalized Ds values were significantly lower in the right middle temporal gyrus (MTG.R) and inferior temporal gyrus (ITG.R) (cluster size = 116); and the <italic>Z</italic>-normalized <italic>f</italic>-values were significantly lower in the MTG.R and ITG.R (cluster size = 85) (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.05, FWE correction). LDL-C was negatively correlated with the <italic>Z</italic>-normalized Ds values in the DCG.L, PCG.L, and PCUN.L (<italic>r</italic> = 0.601, <italic>p</italic> = 0.002). LDL-C was positively correlated with the <italic>Z</italic>-normalized <italic>f</italic>-value in the MTG.R and ITG.R (<italic>r</italic> = 0.405, <italic>p</italic> = 0.05). Systolic blood pressure was positively correlated with the <italic>Z</italic>-normalized Ds values in the MFG.L, ORBmid.L, and SFG.L (<italic>r</italic> = 0.433, <italic>p</italic> = 0.035).</p></sec><sec><title>Conclusion</title><p>This study was the first to detect subclinical brain alterations in asymptomatic carotid vulnerable plaque group through IVIM using whole-brain voxelwise comparisons, which were partially correlated with blood pressure and lipids. Thus, IVIM might be utilized as a noninvasive biomarker of microvascular and microstructural brain changes in the asymptomatic carotid vulnerable plaque group.</p></sec>