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Published on: August 14, 2019
Injury of the Hypothalamus in Patients With Hypoxic-Ischemic Brain Injury: A Diffusion Tensor Imaging Study
1From the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, College of Medicine, Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan, Republic of Korea (SHJ); and Department of Physical Therapy, College of Health Sciences, Catholic University of Pusan, Pusan, Republic of Korea (HGK).
Objectives:
The survival rate for hypoxic-ischemic brain injury (HI-BI) is less than 20%. Several brain regions, including the caudate, hippocampus, and hypothalamus, are vulnerable to HI-BI. Hypothalamus is involved in regulation of temperature, sleep-wakefulness cycle, emotional behavior, and memory function. Using diffusion tensor imaging, we examined injury of the hypothalamus in patients with HI-BI.
Methods:
Twelve patients with HI-BI and 27 healthy control subjects were recruited. The region of interest was defined for the hypothalamus and the fractional anisotropy and apparent diffusion coefficient were measured.
Results:
The fractional anisotropy value was significantly lower in the patient group compared with the control group (P < 0.05), whereas the apparent diffusion coefficient value was significantly higher compared with that of the control group (P < 0.05). In the individual analysis, 7 (58.3%) of 12 patients and 14 (58.3%) of 24 hemispheres showed a decrement or increment of more than two SDs in either fractional anisotropy or apparent diffusion coefficient values compared with the control group.
Conclusions:
Using diffusion tensor imaging, injury of the hypothalamus was demonstrated in patients with HI-BI. Our methodology and results of this study would be helpful in research on the hypothalamus in patients with HI-BI.
