Structural Complexity of the Cerebellum and Cerebral Cortex is Reduced in Spinocerebellar Ataxia Type 2.

Marzi, Chiara; Ciulli, Stefano; Giannelli, Marco; Ginestroni, Andrea; Tessa, Carlo; Mascalchi, Mario; Diciotti, Stefano

Background and Purpose: Fractal dimension (FD) is an index of structural complexity of cortical gray matter (GM) and white matter (WM). Application of FD to pontocerebellar degeneration has revealed cerebellar changes. However, so far, possible concurrent cerebral changes and progression of changes in brain complexity have not been investigated.Methods: We computed FD of cerebellar and cerebral cortex and WM derived from longitudinal brain MRI of patients with spinocerebellar ataxia type 2 (SCA2), which is an inherited cause of pontocerebellar degeneration. Nine SCA2 patients and 16 age-matched healthy controls were examined twice (3.6 ± .7 and 3.3 ± 1.0 years apart, respectively) on the same 1.5T MR scanner with T1-weighted imaging. Cortical GM and WM of the cerebrum and cerebellum were segmented using FreeSurfer and FD of these segmentations were computed.Results: At baseline, FD values of cerebellar GM and WM were significantly (P Conclusions: The structural complexity of the cerebellum and cerebral cortex is reduced in SCA2 patients. Fractal analysis seems not to be able to demonstrate progression of changes associated with degeneration in SCA2.

SPINOCEREBELLAR ataxia; CEREBELLUM degeneration; MAGNETIC resonance imaging of the brain; DIAGNOSTIC imaging; DISEASE progression

Journal of Neuroimaging, 2018, Vol 28, Issue 6, p688

1051-2284

Academic Journal

10.1111/jon.12534