Correlation of neurocognitive impairment and metabolic changes of thalamus in patients with chronic liver cirrhosis / 中国医学影像技术

ABSTRACT

Objective To analyze the relationship of neurocognitive impairments and 1 H MRS changes of the thalamus in patients with chronic hepatitis B virus related cirrhosis (HBV-RC).Methods Totally 28 patients with HBV-RC (cirrhosis group) and 28 well-matched healthy subjects (control group) were enrolled.All subjects underwent number connection test A (NCT-A) and the digit symbol test (DST) before MRS scanning.The ratios of peak area to each metabolite,including N-acetylaminosuccinic acid (NAA),choline (Cho),glutamine and glutamate (Glx),myoinositol (mI) and creatine (Cr) were calculated,respectively.Results Compared with control group,patients in cirrhosis group showed lower Cho/Cr and mI/Cr,higher Glx/Cr,prolonged NCT-A time and decreased DST scores (all P＜0.001).NCT-A completion time was negatively correlated with Cho/Cr and mI/Cr (r=-0.477,P =0.001;r=-0.695,P＜0.001) and positively correlated with Glx/Cr (r=0.665,P＜0.001).DST scores were positively correlated with Cho/Cr and mI/Cr (r =0.478,P =0.001;r=0.632,P＜0.001),and negatively correlated with Glx/Cr (r=-0.572,P＜0.001).Conclusion The neurocognitive impairments may be related to metabolic changes of the thalamus in patients with HBV RC.