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. 2021 Oct 27;3(4):fcab254.
doi: 10.1093/braincomms/fcab254. eCollection 2021.

Smaller spared subcortical nuclei are associated with worse post-stroke sensorimotor outcomes in 28 cohorts worldwide

Sook-Lei Liew  1   2 Artemis Zavaliangos-Petropulu  3   4 Nicolas Schweighofer  5 Neda Jahanshad  4 Catherine E Lang  6   7   8 Keith R Lohse  9 Nerisa Banaj  10 Giuseppe Barisano  3   11 Lee A Baugh  12   13   14   15 Anup K Bhattacharya  16 Bavrina Bigjahan  17 Michael R Borich  18 Lara A Boyd  19 Amy Brodtmann  20   21 Cathrin M Buetefisch  18   22   23 Winston D Byblow  24 Jessica M Cassidy  25 Charalambos C Charalambous  26   27 Valentina Ciullo  10 Adriana B Conforto  28   29 Richard C Craddock  30 Adrienne N Dula  30 Natalia Egorova  20   31 Wuwei Feng  32 Kelene A Fercho  33   34 Chris M Gregory  32 Colleen A Hanlon  35   36 Kathryn S Hayward  20   37   38 Jess A Holguin  1 Brenton Hordacre  39 Darryl H Hwang  17   40 Steven A Kautz  32   41 Mohamed Salah Khlif  20 Bokkyu Kim  42 Hosung Kim  2 Amy Kuceyeski  43 Bethany Lo  1 Jingchun Liu  44 David Lin  45 Martin Lotze  46 Bradley J MacIntosh  47   48 John L Margetis  1 Feroze B Mohamed  49 Jan Egil Nordvik  50 Matthew A Petoe  51   52 Fabrizio Piras  10 Sharmila Raju  53 Ander Ramos-Murguialday  54   55 Kate P Revill  56 Pamela Roberts  1   57   58 Andrew D Robertson  59   60 Heidi M Schambra  53 Na Jin Seo  32   41   61 Mark S Shiroishi  4   17 Surjo R Soekadar  62 Gianfranco Spalletta  10   63 Cathy M Stinear  64 Anisha Suri  65 Wai Kwong Tang  66 Gregory T Thielman  67 Vincent N Thijs  20   68 Daniela Vecchio  10 Nick S Ward  69 Lars T Westlye  70   71 Carolee J Winstein  5   72 George F Wittenberg  73   74 Kristin A Wong  75 Chunshui Yu  44   76 Steven L Wolf  77   78   79   80   81 Steven C Cramer  58   72 Paul M Thompson  4 ENIGMA Stroke Recovery Working Group
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Free PMC article

Smaller spared subcortical nuclei are associated with worse post-stroke sensorimotor outcomes in 28 cohorts worldwide

Sook-Lei Liew et al. Brain Commun. .
Free PMC article

Abstract

Up to two-thirds of stroke survivors experience persistent sensorimotor impairments. Recovery relies on the integrity of spared brain areas to compensate for damaged tissue. Deep grey matter structures play a critical role in the control and regulation of sensorimotor circuits. The goal of this work is to identify associations between volumes of spared subcortical nuclei and sensorimotor behaviour at different timepoints after stroke. We pooled high-resolution T1-weighted MRI brain scans and behavioural data in 828 individuals with unilateral stroke from 28 cohorts worldwide. Cross-sectional analyses using linear mixed-effects models related post-stroke sensorimotor behaviour to non-lesioned subcortical volumes (Bonferroni-corrected, P < 0.004). We tested subacute (≤90 days) and chronic (≥180 days) stroke subgroups separately, with exploratory analyses in early stroke (≤21 days) and across all time. Sub-analyses in chronic stroke were also performed based on class of sensorimotor deficits (impairment, activity limitations) and side of lesioned hemisphere. Worse sensorimotor behaviour was associated with a smaller ipsilesional thalamic volume in both early (n = 179; d = 0.68) and subacute (n = 274, d = 0.46) stroke. In chronic stroke (n = 404), worse sensorimotor behaviour was associated with smaller ipsilesional putamen (d = 0.52) and nucleus accumbens (d = 0.39) volumes, and a larger ipsilesional lateral ventricle (d = -0.42). Worse chronic sensorimotor impairment specifically (measured by the Fugl-Meyer Assessment; n = 256) was associated with smaller ipsilesional putamen (d = 0.72) and larger lateral ventricle (d = -0.41) volumes, while several measures of activity limitations (n = 116) showed no significant relationships. In the full cohort across all time (n = 828), sensorimotor behaviour was associated with the volumes of the ipsilesional nucleus accumbens (d = 0.23), putamen (d = 0.33), thalamus (d = 0.33) and lateral ventricle (d = -0.23). We demonstrate significant relationships between post-stroke sensorimotor behaviour and reduced volumes of deep grey matter structures that were spared by stroke, which differ by time and class of sensorimotor measure. These findings provide additional insight into how different cortico-thalamo-striatal circuits support post-stroke sensorimotor outcomes.

Keywords: MRI; rehabilitation; sensorimotor behaviour; stroke; subcortical volumes.

Figures

Graphical Abstract
Graphical Abstract
Figure 1
Figure 1
Relationships between post-stroke sensorimotor behaviour and non-lesioned subcortical volumes. Non-lesioned subcortical regions (D, bottom right) that relate to sensorimotor behaviour from linear mixed-effects models of people with subacute (A, top left) and chronic (B, bottom left) stroke. Non-lesioned subcortical volume relationships with chronic sensorimotor impairment are shown in C (top right). There were no significant volume relationships with chronic activity limitations. Colours represent the beta estimate (β) for sensorimotor behaviour from each model. Warmer colours represent stronger positive relationships (e.g. larger brain volumes relate to better behaviour), and cooler colours represent stronger negative relationships (e.g. larger brain volumes relate to worse behaviour).

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