Author:
Chen Lu,Hu Hao,Chen Wen,Wu Qian,Zhou Jiang,Chen Huan-Huan,Xu Xiao-Quan,Shi Hai-Bin,Wu Fei-Yun
Abstract
Abstract
Background
Dysfunction of lacrimal gland (LG) gains increasing attention in patients with thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy (TAO), while the underlying pathological change is still not fully established. This study aimed to evaluate the utility of readout-segmented echo-planar imaging (rs-EPI)-based diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) in non-invasively detecting microstructural alterations of LG in patients with TAO, as well as in discriminating disease activity.
Methods
Thirty TAO patients and 15 age- and sex- matched healthy controls, who underwent rs-EPI-based DTI, were retrospectively enrolled. Fractional anisotropy (FA) and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) of LG, and clinical-endocrinological variables were collected and compared. The correlations between FA and ADC values of LG and serum thyroid biochemical markers were also assessed.
Results
TAO group showed significantly lower FA (P < 0.001) and higher ADC (P = 0.014) of LG than healthy group. Active subgroup had significantly lower FA (P < 0.001) and higher ADC (P < 0.001) than inactive subgroup. In TAO group, FA of LG was significantly and negatively correlated with TRAb (r=-0.475, P = 0.008), while ADC of LG showed no significant correlation (P > 0.05). The area under receiver operating characteristic curve of FA was significantly greater than that under curve of ADC for discriminating disease activity (0.832 vs. 0.570, P = 0.009).
Conclusions
rs-EPI-based DTI is a useful tool to characterize the microstructural change of LG in patients with TAO. The derived metrics, particularly FA, can help to reveal disease activity.
Funder
National Natural Science Foundation of China
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Subject
Ophthalmology,General Medicine
Cited by
9 articles.
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