Alterations in white matter free water in anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor encephalitis
10.19405/j.cnki.issn1000-1492.2025.07.009
- Author:
Jie Hu
1
;
Xin Wang
1
;
Yuanyuan Guo
2
;
Xinyi Lv
3
;
Siyu Fan
1
;
Yanghua Tian
1
Author Information
1. Dept of Neurology，The Secend Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University，Hefei 230601
2. Dept of Neurology，The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University，Hefei 230022
3. Dept of Neurology，The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC ( Anhui Provincial Hospital) ，Hefei 230001
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- Keywords:
anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor encephalitis;
diffusion tensor imaging;
free water;
white matter;
cognitive function;
encephalitis
- From:
Acta Universitatis Medicinalis Anhui
2025;60(7):1225-1230
- CountryChina
- Language:Chinese
-
Abstract:
Objective :To analyze the distribution characteristics of free water ( FW) and FW-corrected fractional anisotropy (FAt) in the white matter of the brain in patients with anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor ( NMDAR) encephalitis and to explore their correlation with cognitive function．
Methods : A total of 38 patients with anti- NMDAR encephalitis and 30 controls were recruited from three hospitals in Hefei．Diffusion tensor imaging data and neuropsychological assessment results were collected．Tract-Based Spatial Statistics was applied to compare group differences in FW and FAt across the whole brain white matter．Correlation analyses were further performed to ex- amine the relationships between FW/ FAt metrics and cognitive function．
Results :Compared to the control group， patients with anti-NMDAR encephalitis showed significantly lower scores on the montreal cognitive assessment，im- mediate recall，delayed recall，and the verbal fluency test (all P＜0. 05) ，as well as significantly longer comple- tion times for color naming and word reading tasks in the stroop color word test (all P＜0. 05) ．Diffusion tensor im- aging analysis revealed significantly elevated FW and reduced FAt in widespread white matter regions in the patient group (all P＜0. 000 1) ．Further correlation analysis showed that increased FW was positively associated with the completion time of the color-switching condition in the color digital trail making test (P = 0. 044 ) and with the difference between color-switching and number sequencing conditions ( P = 0. 016 ) ，while negatively correlated with semantic fluency scores (P = 0. 002) ．Additionally，FAt was positively associated with delayed recall perform- ance (P = 0. 012) ，and negatively correlated with the completion times for color naming (P = 0. 018 ) and word reading (P = 0. 046) tasks in the SCWT．
Conclusion : Patients with anti-NMDAR encephalitis exhibit significantly elevated FW and significantly reduced FAt in white matter tracts，both of which are closely linked to cognitive im- pairment．
- Full text:2026030509185040022抗N-甲基-D-天冬氨酸受体脑炎患者脑白质自由水变化_胡杰.pdf
