Quantitative Evaluation of Cortical Thickness in 3T in Behçet’s Patients without Neurological Involvement and Parenchymal Neuro-Behçet’s Disease

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate the spatial distribution of cortical damage in Behcet's Disease (BD) with or without neurological involvement using a cortical thickness measurement approach using three-dimensional T1-weighted imaging.Material and methods: Fifty-eight BD patients without neurological involvement, twenty-two Parenchymal Neuro-Behcets disease (PNBD) patients, and fifty healthy controls were included in the prospective study. Anatomical 3D T1 images were obtained from all participants using 3T MRI. Using a computational anatomy toolbox (CAT12), we calculated and compared group differences in cortical thickness.Results: Patients with BD without neurological involvement showed cortical thickness reduction in bilateral frontal, bilateral parietal, and right precuneus compared with the healthy controls (HCs) (p < 0.05 FWE cor-rected [FWEc]). PNBD patients showed frontoparietal cortical thickness reduction when compared with BD patients without neurological involvement (p < 0.05 FWEc). The PNBD patients showed widespread cortical thickness reduction compared with the HC patients (p < 0.05 FWEc). Disease duration was correlated with cortical thickness in the right pericalcarine (p = 0.012 false discovery rate [FDR], r =-0.40), left pericalcarine (p = 0.013 FDR, r =-0.44), and left transverse temporal (p = 0.007 FDR, r =-0.41) regions.Conclusion: There is a decrease in cortical thickness in BD patients without neurological involvement. Cortical thickness reduction is more prominent in parenchymal neurobehcet's patients. Cortical thickness shows a negative correlation with disease duration in some regions.