Higher longitudinal brain white matter atrophy rate in aquaporin-4 IgG-positive NMOSD compared with healthy controls
Hiroki Masuda, Masahiro Mori, Shigeki Hirano, Akiyuki Uzawa, Tomohiko Uchida, Mayumi Muto, Ryohei Ohtani, Reiji Aoki, Yoshiyuki Hirano, Japanese Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (J-ADNI), Takeshi Iwatsubo, Takashi Asada, Hiroyuki Arai, Morihiro Sugishita, Hiroshi Matsuda, Kengo Ito, Michio Senda, Kenji Ishii, Ryozo Kuwano, Takeshi Ikeuchi, Noriko Sato, Hajime Sato, Shun Shimohama, Masaki Saitoh, Rika Yamauchi, Takashi Hayashi, Seiju Kobayashi, Norihito Nakano, Junichiro Kanazawa, Takeshi Ando, Chiyoko Takanami, Masato Hareyama, Masamitsu Hatakenaka, Eriko Tsukamoto, Shinji Ochi, Mikio Shoji, Etsuro Matsubara, Takeshi Kawarabayashi, Yasuhito Wakasaya, Takashi Nakata, Naoko Nakahata, Shuichi Ono, Yoshihiro Takai, Satoshi Takahashi, Hisashi Yonezawa, Junko Takahashi, Masako Kudoh, Makoto Sasaki, Yutaka Matsumura, Yohsuke Hirata, Tsuyoshi Metoki, Susumu Hayakawa, Yuichi Sato, Masayuki Takeda, Toshiaki Sasaki, K. Sera, Kazunori Terasaki, Y. SAITOH, Shoko Goto, Kuniko Ueno, Hiromi Sakashita, Kuniko Watanabe, Ken Nagata, Yuichi Sato, Tetsuya Maeda, Yasushi Kondoh, Takashi Yamazaki, Daiki Takano, Mio Miyata, Hiromi Komatsu, Mayumi Watanabe, Tomomi Sinoda, Rena Muraoka, Kayoko Kikuchi, Hitomi Ito, Aki Sato, Toshibumi Kinoshita, Hideyo Toyoshima, Kaoru Sato, Shigeki Sugawara, Isao Ito, Fumiko Kumagai, Katsutoshi Furukawa, Masaaki Waragai, Naoki Tomita, Nobuyuki Okamura, Mari Ootsuki, Katsumi Sugawara, Satomi Sugawara, Shunji Mugikura, Atsushi Umetsu, Takanori Murata, Tatsuo Nagasaka, Yukitsuka Kudo, Manabu Tashiro, S. Watanuki, Masatoyo Nishizawa, Takayoshi Tokutake, Saeri Ishikawa, Emiko Kishida
Abstract
We aimed to compare longitudinal brain atrophy in patients with neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) with healthy controls (HCs). The atrophy rate in patients with anti-aquaporin-4 antibody-positive NMOSD (AQP4 + NMOSD) was compared with age-sex-matched HCs recruited from the Japanese Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative study and another study performed at Chiba University. Twenty-nine patients with AQP4 + NMOSD and 29 HCs were enrolled in the study. The time between magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans was longer in the AQP4 + NMOSD group compared with the HCs (median; 3.2 vs. 2.9 years, P = 0.009). The annualized normalized white matter volume (NWV) atrophy rate was higher in the AQP4 + NMOSD group compared with the HCs (median; 0.37 vs. - 0.14, P = 0.018). The maximum spinal cord lesion length negatively correlated with NWV at baseline MRI in patients with AQP4 + NMOSD (Spearman's rho = - 0.41, P = 0.027). The annualized NWV atrophy rate negatively correlated with the time between initiation of persistent prednisolone usage and baseline MRI in patients with AQP4 + NMOSD (Spearman's rho = - 0.43, P = 0.019). Patients with AQP4 + NMOSD had a greater annualized NWV atrophy rate than HCs. Suppressing disease activity may prevent brain atrophy in patients with AQP4 + NMOSD.