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Updated: May 24, 2025
Utility of Dissociated Intrinsic Hand Muscle Atrophy in the Diagnosis of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
Published on: March 4, 2014
Radiomic alterations and clinical correlates of hypothalamic nuclei in ALS
Benedetta Tafuri1, Alessia Giugno2, Salvatore Nigro3
1Department of Translational Biomedicine and Neuroscience (DiBraiN), University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy; Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases and the Aging Brain, University of Bari Aldo Moro at Pia Fondazione "Card. G. Panico", Tricase, Italy; Department of Engineering of Innovation, University of Salento, Lecce, Italy.
Objective:
The aim of this study is to analyze hypothalamic changes and clinical/metabolic correlates with a radiomic approach in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).
Methods:
We retrospectively identified 54 sporadic ALS patients and 53 matched controls. We compared radiomics features over hypothalamic subunits in T1-weighted. Semi-partial correlation (Spearman's correlation) assessed the relationship between Body Mass Index (BMI) and clinical scores with radiomics features. We considered only moderate correlations (rho>|0.4|).
Results:
Compared to HC, individuals with ALS showed significantly higher values of radiomic measures in the left Anterior-Inferior, Posterior and Inferior-Tubular hypothalamic subunits. Similarly, right hypothalamic nuclei reported significant differences in Anterior-Superior, Posterior and Inferior-Tubular nuclei. Two radiomics measures of randomness of the intensities in left Anterior-Inferior subunit showed highly significant correlation with greater BMI values. Higher local homogeneity of the right Inferior-Tubular subunit corresponded to higher ALS Functional Rating Scale-Revised (ALSFRS-r), while finer textures of the left Anterior-Superior subunit were negatively related with disease progression rate.
Conclusions:
These results support the hypothesis that a degenerative process affecting hypothalamus in ALS extends beyond the atrophy process. Intriguingly, the close relationship between the entropy of left Anterior-Inferior nucleus and the higher BMI may further demonstrate the critical role of hypothalamus in eating abnormalities. Furthermore, the inhomogeneity of the right Inferior-Tubular subunit reflects a more severe clinical condition by ALSFRS-R. This work represents a significant advancement in the study of ALS and its association with hypothalamic changes through a novel radiological approach, uncovering new associations between sub-hypothalamic radiomic changes, anthropometric measures, and disease outcomes.
