Magnetic resonance spectroscopy features of the thalamus and the cerebellum and their association with clinical features in children with autism spectrum disorder: a prospective study
KANG Qian-Qian, LI Xu, TONG Guang-Lei, FAN Ya-Lan, SHI Lei
Anhui Hospital Affiliated to Children's Hospital of Fudan University/Anhui Children's Hospital, Hefei 230022, China
Abstract：Objective To study the changes in biochemical metabolites in the thalamus and the cerebellum and their association with clinical features in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Methods In this prospective study, magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) with point-resolved spatial selection was used to analyze the thalamus and the cerebellum at both sides in 50 children with ASD aged 2-6 years. Creatine (Cr) was as the internal standard to measure the relative values of N-acetylaspartate (NAA)/Cr, choline (Cho)/Cr, myoinositol (MI)/Cr, and glutamine and glutamate complex (Glx)/Cr, and the differences in metabolites and their association with clinical symptoms were compared. Results In the children with ASD, NAA/Cr in the left thalamus was positively correlated with the scores of hearing-language and hand-eye coordination in the Griffiths Development Scales-Chinese (P<0.05). Cho/Cr in the right cerebellum was positively correlated with the scores of personal-social competence, hearing-language, and hand-eye coordination (P<0.05). NAA/Cr and Glx/Cr in the left thalamus were positively correlated with those in the left cerebellum (P<0.05). There was no significant difference in metabolites between the left and right sides of the thalamus and the cerebellum in the children with ASD (P>0.05). Conclusions There are metabolic disorders in the cerebellum and the thalamus in children with ASD, and there is a correlation between the changes of metabolites in the left cerebellum and the left thalamus. Some metabolic indexes are related to the clinical symptoms of ASD. MRS may reveal the pathological basis of ASD and provide a basis for diagnosis and prognosis assessment of ASD as a noninvasive and quantitative detection method.
KANG Qian-Qian,LI Xu,TONG Guang-Lei et al. Magnetic resonance spectroscopy features of the thalamus and the cerebellum and their association with clinical features in children with autism spectrum disorder: a prospective study[J]. CJCP, 2021, 23(12): 1250-1255.
5 American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders[M]. 5th ed. Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Association, 2013: 50-59.
Schopler E, Reichler RJ, DeVellis RF, et al. Toward objective classification of childhood autism: Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS)[J]. J Autism Dev Disord, 1980, 10(1): 91-103. PMID: 6927682. DOI: 10.1007/BF02408436.
Tso WWY, Wong VCN, Xia X, et al. The Griffiths Development Scales-Chinese (GDS-C): a cross-cultural comparison of developmental trajectories between Chinese and British children[J]. Child Care Health Dev, 2018, 44(3): 378-383. PMID: 29392794. DOI: 10.1111/cch.12548.
Fujii E, Mori K, Miyazaki M, et al. Function of the frontal lobe in autistic individuals: a proton magnetic resonance spectroscopic study[J]. J Med Invest, 2010, 57(1-2): 35-44. PMID: 20299741. DOI: 10.2152/jmi.57.35.
Edmondson DA, Xia PY, McNally Keehn R, et al. A magnetic resonance spectroscopy study of superior visual search abilities in children with autism spectrum disorder[J]. Autism Res, 2020, 13(4): 550-562. PMID: 31909886. PMCID: PMC7688022. DOI: 10.1002/aur.2258.
Mori K, Toda Y, Ito H, et al. Neuroimaging in autism spectrum disorders: 1H-MRS and NIRS study[J]. J Med Invest, 2015, 62(1-2): 29-36. PMID: 25817280. DOI: 10.2152/jmi.62.29.
Naaijen J, Zwiers MP, Forde NJ, et al. Striatal structure and its association with N-acetylaspartate and glutamate in autism spectrum disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder[J]. Eur Neuropsychopharmacol, 2018, 28(1): 118-129. PMID: 29169826. DOI: 10.1016/j.euroneuro.2017.11.010.
DeVito TJ, Drost DJ, Neufeld RWJ, et al. Evidence for cortical dysfunction in autism: a proton magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging study[J]. Biol Psychiatry, 2007, 61(4): 465-473. PMID: 17276747. DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2006.07.022.
Horder J, Lavender T, Mendez MA, et al. Reduced subcortical glutamate/glutamine in adults with autism spectrum disorders: a [1H]MRS study[J]. Transl Psychiatry, 2014, 4(2): e364. PMID: 24548879. PMCID: PMC3944637. DOI: 10.1038/tp.2014.7.
Cichocka M, Kozub J, Karcz P, et al. Differences in metabolite concentrations between the hemispheres of the brain in healthy children: a proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy study (1HMRS)[J]. J Child Neurol, 2016, 31(11): 1296-1301. PMID: 27364739. DOI: 10.1177/0883073816653784.
