背景:据报道,自闭症谱系障碍(ASD)患者的call体(CC)大小改变,但是很少有研究调查年幼的孩子。此外,关于ASD患者与年龄相关的CC大小变化的知识有限。
目的:我们的目的是调查与年龄相关的CC大小,并将其与年龄匹配的2至18岁健康对照进行比较。
方法:我们采集了97例确诊为ASD的男性患者的结构加权图像;对照组使用已发表的数据。CC被分为7个不同的子区域(讲台,genu,头端身体,前中体,后中体,地峡,和splenium)根据Witelson的技术使用ITK-SNAP软件。我们计算了CC的总长度和体积以及其7个子区域的长度和高度。CC度量的长度被研究为连续形式和分类形式。对于连续形式,使用皮尔森的相关性,而分类形式是基于反映出生后早期大脑扩张的年龄范围。使用学生t检验评估ASD个体中相邻年龄组之间CC测量值的差异。使用Welcht检验比较ASD组和对照组之间的平均值和标准偏差评分。
结果:在ASD患者中,年龄与CC总长度呈中度正相关(r=0.43;Padj=0.003)。在分区域中,仅在CC的前中体观察到正相关(r=0.41;Padj=0.01).在年龄和各个子区域的身高之间或与CC的总体积之间没有发现关联。与健康对照相比,在广泛的年龄范围内,患有ASD的个体表现出CC的Genu和Spenium的长度和高度较短。
结论:总体而言,我们的结果突出了ASD中CC的明显异常发展轨迹,特别是在genu和splenium结构中,可能反映潜在的病理生理机制,需要进一步研究。
BACKGROUND: Altered size in the corpus callosum (CC) has been reported in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but few studies have investigated younger children. Moreover, knowledge about the age-related changes in CC size in individuals with ASD is limited.
OBJECTIVE: Our objective was to investigate the age-related size of the CC and compare them with age-matched healthy controls between the ages of 2 and 18 years.
METHODS: Structural-weighted images were acquired in 97 male patients diagnosed with ASD; published data were used for the control group. The CC was segmented into 7 distinct subregions (rostrum, genu, rostral body, anterior midbody, posterior midbody, isthmus, and splenium) as per Witelson\'s technique using ITK-SNAP software. We calculated both the total length and volume of the CC as well as the length and height of its 7 subregions. The length of the CC measures was studied as both continuous and categorical forms. For the continuous form, Pearson\'s correlation was used, while categorical forms were based on age ranges reflecting brain expansion during early postnatal years. Differences in CC measures between adjacent age groups in individuals with ASD were assessed using a Student t-test. Mean and standard deviation scores were compared between ASD and control groups using the Welch t-test.
RESULTS: Age showed a moderate positive association with the total length of the CC (r = 0.43; Padj = 0.003) among individuals with ASD. Among the subregions, a positive association was observed only in the anterior midbody of the CC (r = 0.41; Padj = 0.01). No association was found between the age and the height of individual subregions or with the total volume of the CC. In comparison with healthy controls, individuals with ASD exhibited shorter lengths and heights of the genu and splenium of the CC across wide age ranges.
CONCLUSIONS: Overall, our results highlight a distinct abnormal developmental trajectory of CC in ASD, particularly in the genu and splenium structures, potentially reflecting underlying pathophysiological mechanisms that warrant further investigation.