Pilot assessment of brain metabolism in perinatally HIV-Infected youths using accelerated 5D echo planar J-Resolved spectroscopic imaging

Zohaib Iqbal, Neil E. Wilson, Margaret A. Keller, David E. Michalik, Joseph A. Church, Karin Nielsen-Saines, Jaime Deville, Raissa Souza, Mary Lynn Brecht, M. Albert Thomas

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

Purpose To measure cerebral metabolite levels in perinatally HIV-infected youths and healthy controls using the accelerated five dimensional (5D) echo planar J-resolved spectroscopic imaging (EP-JRESI) sequence, which is capable of obtaining two dimensional (2D) J-resolved spectra from three spatial dimensions (3D). Materials and Methods After acquisition and reconstruction of the 5D EP-JRESI data, T1 -weighted MRIs were used to classify brain regions of interest for HIV patients and healthy controls: right frontal white (FW), medial frontal gray (FG), right basal ganglia (BG), right occipital white (OW), and medial occipital gray (OG). From these locations, respective J-resolved and TE-averaged spectra were extracted and fit using two different quantitation methods. The J-resolved spectra were fit using prior knowledge fitting (ProFit) while the TE-averaged spectra were fit using the advanced method for accurate robust and efficient spectral fitting (AMARES). Results Quantitation of the 5D EP-JRESI data using the ProFit algorithm yielded significant metabolic differences in two spatial locations of the perinatally HIV-infected youths compared to controls: elevated NAA/(Cr+Ch) in the FW and elevated Asp/(Cr+Ch) in the BG. Using the TE-averaged data quantified by AMARES, an increase of Glu/(Cr+Ch) was shown in the FW region. A strong negative correlation (r < -0.6) was shown between tCh/(Cr+Ch) quantified using ProFit in the FW and CD4 counts. Also, strong positive correlations (r > 0.6) were shown between Asp/(Cr+Ch) and CD4 counts in the FG and BG. Conclusion The complimentary results using ProFit fitting of J-resolved spectra and AMARES fitting of TE-averaged spectra, which are a subset of the 5D EP-JRESI acquisition, demonstrate an abnormal energy metabolism in the brains of perinatally HIV-infected youths. This may be a result of the HIV pathology and long-term combinational anti-retroviral therapy (cART). Further studies of larger perinatally HIV-infected cohorts are necessary to confirm these findings.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article numbere0162810
JournalPloS one
Volume11
Issue number9
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2016
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
  • General Agricultural and Biological Sciences
  • General

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