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Increased intrinsic connectivity for structural atrophy and functional maintenance after acute ischaemic stroke
Author(s) -
Yang Y.,
Chen Y.,
Chen K.,
Wei D.,
Li P.,
Zeng W.,
Pei J.,
Mao H.,
Jia J.,
Zhang Z.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
european journal of neurology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.881
H-Index - 124
eISSN - 1468-1331
pISSN - 1351-5101
DOI - 10.1111/ene.13913
Subject(s) - medicine , caudate nucleus , stroke (engine) , cingulum (brain) , precuneus , grey matter , cardiology , atrophy , neuroimaging , magnetic resonance imaging , voxel based morphometry , white matter , neuroscience , physical medicine and rehabilitation , radiology , functional magnetic resonance imaging , psychology , mechanical engineering , fractional anisotropy , psychiatry , engineering
Background and purpose Significant clinical recovery has commonly been observed in ischaemic stroke patients with irreversible brain structural damage. However, brain mechanisms that help to maintain clinical function remain unclear. Methods Sixty‐two patients with acute ischaemic stroke underwent longitudinal clinical assessments and magnetic resonance scanning. The clinical recovery trajectory was evaluated using a hierarchical linear model and intrinsic connectivity was analysed with a seed‐based approach to examine its changing pattern based on the regional volume changes calculated using voxel‐wise analysis. Results It was observed that clinical outcome measures improved mainly in the short‐term period (baseline versus 3 weeks) and then remained stable. Grey matter volume was reduced significantly in the bilateral caudate over the entire 3‐year long‐term period. Significant intrinsic connectivity increases were observed in the caudate–middle cingulum over the short‐term period and in the caudate–precuneus and caudate–calcarine over the long‐term period. Finally, it was found that increased caudate–calcarine connectivity was associated with reduced right caudate volume, and a positive correlation was found between increased caudate–middle cingulum connectivity and the amount of modified Rankin score changes. Conclusions The increased intrinsic connectivity found in this study tends to be a compensatory mechanism for post‐stroke structural damage, associated with clinical recovery. The study helps in understanding the significance of enhanced intrinsic connectivity in post‐stroke long‐term assessment and rehabilitation.