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Brain abnormalities in cognition, anxiety, and depression regulatory regions in adolescents with single ventricle heart disease
Author(s) -
Pike Nancy A.,
Roy Bhaswati,
Gupta Ritika,
Singh Sadhana,
Woo Mary A.,
Hal Nancy J.,
Lewis Alan B.,
Kumar Rajesh
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
journal of neuroscience research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.72
H-Index - 160
eISSN - 1097-4547
pISSN - 0360-4012
DOI - 10.1002/jnr.24215
Subject(s) - corpus callosum , anxiety , psychology , medicine , hippocampus , neuroscience , cardiology , psychiatry
Background Single ventricle heart disease (SVHD) adolescents show cognitive impairments and anxiety and depressive symptoms, indicating the possibility of brain injury in regions that control these functions. However, brain tissue integrity in cognition, anxiety, and depression regulatory sites in SVHD remains unclear. We examined brain tissue changes in SVHD compared to controls using T2‐relaxometry procedures, which measure free water content and show tissue injury. Methods Proton‐density and T2‐weighted images, using a 3.0‐Tesla MRI, as well as anxiety (Beck anxiety inventory [BAI]), depressive symptoms (patient health questionnaire‐9 [PHQ‐9]), and cognition (wide range assessment of memory and learning 2 [WRAML2] and Montreal cognitive assessment [MoCA]) data were collected from 20 SVHD (age: 15.8 ± 1.1 years, male/female: 11/9) and 36 controls (age: 16.0 ± 1.1 years, male/female: 19/17). Whole‐brain T2‐relaxation maps were calculated, normalized to a common space, smoothed, and compared between groups and sexes (analysis of covariance; covariates: age, sex; p < 0.001). Results SVHD subjects showed significantly increased BAI and PHQ‐9 and reduced MoCA and WRAML2 scores over controls. Several brain regions in SVHD showed increased T2‐relaxation values (chronic injury), including the cingulate, and insula, hippocampus/para‐hippocampal gyrus, thalamus, hypothalamus, amygdala, frontal white matter, corpus callosum, brainstem, and cerebellar areas. Decreased T2‐relaxation values (acute injury) emerged in a few regions, including the prefrontal and cerebellar cortices in SVHD over controls. In addition, male SVHD showed more brain changes over female SVHD. Conclusions Adolescents with SVHD showed significant brain injury with variable male–female differences in areas that control cognition, anxiety, and depression, which may contribute to functional deficits found in the condition.