The following is a summary of “Association of Choroid Plexus Volume With Serum Biomarkers, Clinical Features, and Disease Severity in Patients With Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration Spectrum,” published in the July 2023 issue of Neurology by Assogna et al.
The choroid plexus (ChP) is gaining importance as a significant brain structure in understanding neurodegenerative conditions. Researchers conducted an observational study to explore the potential association between ChP volume and disease-specific biomarkers in a substantial cohort of patients within the frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) spectrum.
They enrolled participants who met the clinical criteria for probable syndrome in the FTLD spectrum. Structural brain MRI images, serum neurofilament light (NfL), serum phosphorylated-Tau181 (p-Tau181), and cognitive/behavioral data were collected. ChP volumes from MRI were acquired using an ad-hoc segmentation model relying on a Gaussian Mixture Models (GMM) algorithm.
The results showed 316 patients across the FTLD spectrum, 135 with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), 75 with primary progressive aphasia (PPA), 46 with progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), and 60 with corticobasal syndrome (CBS). Also, 82 age-matched healthy controls (HC) participated. ChP volume is significantly larger across clinical subtypes in FTLD patients than in HC. Significant ChP volume difference between HC and disease-severity-stratified patients using CDRplus NACC FTLD, including early-stage cases. ChP volume correlated with serum NfL, cognitive/behavioral deficits, and cortical atrophy patterns. ChP volume better differentiated HC from FTLD patients than other recognized brain structure volumes.
They concluded FTLD spectrum reveals genetic heterogeneity, ChP potential biomarker at early stage, assessing disease onset and progression.
Source: n.neurology.org/content/early/2023/07/26/WNL.0000000000207600
