DTI Study on Brain Structure and Cognitive Function in Patients with Chronic Mountain Sickness

Abstract

In chronic mountain sickness (CMS) patients, the structure of the brain, memory and cognition are often irreversibly damaged by chronic hypoxia due to red blood cell overcompensation, elevated haemoglobin and blood stasis. In this study, we aimed to evaluate this damage using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and to study the correlations among the fractional anisotropy (FA),the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) value, the severity index of CMS and the simple Mental State Examination (MMSE) score in CMS patients. A total of 17 patients with CMS and 15 healthy controls were recruited for conventional brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and DTI scans, and ADC images were reconstructed along with FA and FA colour maps. The FA and ADC values of the selected regions of interest (ROIs) were measured and compared. The FA and ADC values were also compared with the haemoglobin (Hb) and MMSE scores. CMS patients are prone to intracranial ischaemia, infarction and haemorrhage. Multiple structural changes occur in the brain of CMS patients, and these changes are related to the severity of the disease and cognitive function variation. The white matter fibre bundles of CMS patients showed no obvious damage, except in the ischaemic site.