Brain magnetic resonance imaging of patients with spinal muscular atrophy type 2 and 3

Proximal spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is caused by deficiency of the ubiquitously expressed survival motor neuron protein. Although primarily a hereditary lower motor neuron disease, it is probably also characterized by abnormalities in other organs. Brain abnormalities and cognitive impairment have been reported in severe SMA. We aimed to systematically investigate brain structure in SMA using MRI.

We acquired high-resolution T1-weighted images of treatment-naive patients with SMA, age- and sex-matched healthy and disease controls with other neuromuscular diseases, on a 3 T MRI scanner. We performed vertex-wise whole brain analysis and region of interest analysis of cortical thickness (CT), and volumetric analysis of the thalamus and compared findings in patients and controls using multiple linear regression models and Wald test. We correlated structural abnormalities with motor function as assessed by the Hammersmith Functional Motor Scale Expanded (HFMSE) and SMA Functional Rating Scale (SMA-FRS).

We included 30 patients, 12-70 years old, with SMA type 2 and 3, 30 age- and sex-matched healthy controls and 17 disease controls (with distal SMA, hereditary motor and sensory neuropathy, multifocal motor neuropathy, progressive muscular atrophy and segmental SMA). We found a reduced CT in patients with SMA compared to healthy controls at the precentral, postcentral and medial orbitofrontal gyri and at the temporal pole (mean differences -0.059(p = 0.04); -0.055(p = 0.04), -0.06(p = 0.04); -0.17 mm(p = 0.001)). Differences at the precentral gyrus and temporal pole were most pronounced in SMA type 2 (mean differences -0.07(p = 0.045); -0.26 mm(p < 0.001)) and were also present compared to disease controls (mean differences -0.08(p = 0.048); -0.19 mm(p = 0.003)). There was a positive correlation between CT at the temporal pole with motor function. Compared to healthy controls, we found a reduced volume of the whole thalamus (mean difference -325 mm³(p = 0.03)) and of the anterior, ventral and intralaminar thalamic nuclei (mean differences -9.9(p = 0.02); -157(p = 0.01); -24.2 mm³(p = 0.02) in patients with SMA and a positive correlation between these volumes and motor function.

MRI shows structural changes in motor and non-motor regions of the cortex and the thalamus of patients with SMA type 2 and 3, indicating that SMA pathology is not confined to motor neurons.