Abstract Details

Title Thalamus Atrophy is Not a Predictor of Cognitive Performance in Multiple Sclerosis Patients with Previous Optic Neuritis

Topic Multiple Sclerosis

Presentation(s) P1 - Poster Session 1 (12:00 PM-1:00 PM)

Poster/Presentation
Number 9-015

Objective To compare thalamus volume in Multiple Sclerosis (MS) patients with and without previous optic neuritis (ON) and to correlate thalamus atrophy with cognitive performance in both groups.

Background

Thalamic atrophy has been proposed as a clinically relevant biomarker of the neurodegenerative process in MS and an important predictor of the cognitive performance. However, the exact causes of thalamus atrophy are unclear, with possible mechanisms including primary grey matter (GM) damage, retrograde degeneration and anterograde trans-synaptic degeneration (TSD). Thalamus is a key relay and processing station for the visual system and therefore may be particularly susceptible to anterograde TSD after ON. However, little is known about the correlation between thalamus volume and cognitive performance in MS patients with prior ON.

Design/Methods Enrolled 60 healthy controls (HC) and 60 MS patients – 39 without a history of prior ON (MSNON) and 21 with prior ON (MSON). Participants underwent 3Tesla Brain MRI and neuropsychological evaluation using the BICAMS battery. Using Freesurfer software, cortical and subcortical GM volumes were calculated.

Results

Compared to HC, MS patients presented a significantly decreased thalamus volume. When comparing total and regional GM volumes between MSON and MSNON patients, only the thalamus volume was significantly lower in MSON group (0.0038 vs. 0.0043, p=0.001). In the multivariate analysis, the variables retained as predictors of thalamus atrophy were T2-lesion load (β=-0.525, p<0.001), estimated total intracranial volume (β=-0.390, p<0.001) and prior optic neuritis (β=-0.260, p=0.007). While in MSNON patients, thalamus volume correlated with BICAMS cognitive tests (SDMT, BVMT-R and CVLT) (r=0.442, p=0.007; r=0.532, p=0.001; r=0.621, p<0.001, respectively), those correlations were not statistically significant in MSON group.

Conclusions In MSON patients, thalamus volume was significantly decreased, and it did not correlate with cognitive performance, presumably because thalamic atrophy in these patients is mainly driven by anterograde TSD from the optic nerve.

Authors/Disclosures
Ana Margarida Novo, MD (CHUC) PRESENTER	No disclosure on file
	No disclosure on file
	No disclosure on file
	No disclosure on file
	No disclosure on file
Livia D. Sousa, MD (Centro Hospitalar E Universitario De Coimbra)	Dr. Sousa has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving on a Scientific Advisory or Data Safety Monitoring board for Bayer,Merck,Novartis,Biogen,Saniofi,Roche.
	No disclosure on file
Isabel Santana (Agenda West)	No disclosure on file
Sonia Batista, MD (Hospital Universidade Coimbra)	Dr. Batista has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving on a Scientific Advisory or Data Safety Monitoring board for Biogen, Novartis, Roche, Sanofi Genzyme, Merck. Dr. Batista has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving on a Speakers Bureau for Biogen, Novartis, Roche, Sanofi Genzyme, Merck.