Subcortical gray matter volumes in asthma: associations with asthma duration, control, and anxiety
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ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Subcortical gray matter volumes in asthma: associations with asthma duration, control, and anxiety Thomas Ritz 1 & Juliet L. Kroll 1 & Sina Aslan 2,3,4 & Thomas Janssens 5 & David A. Khan 2 & Amy E. Pinkham 4 & E. Sherwood Brown 2
# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019
Abstract Asthma as a chronic inflammatory disease can be expected to affect central nervous system structures but little is known about subcortical structures in asthma and their potential association with illness-specific outcomes and anxiety. A total of 40 young adults (20 with asthma and 20 gender- and age-matched controls) underwent high-resolution T1-weighted MRI scan, viewed short distressing film clips, and filled in questionnaires about anxious and depressed mood, as well as asthma history, control, and catastrophizing thoughts about asthma, for those with asthma. The structural scans were processed in FSL’s FIRST program to delineate subcortical structures of interest: amygdala, hippocampus, putamen, pallidum, caudate nucleus, nucleus accumbens, and thalamus. Findings showed no general reduction in subcortical gray matter volumes in asthma compared to controls. Asthma duration, asthma control, and catastrophizing of asthma and asthma attacks were negatively associated with volumes of putamen and pallidum, and to a weaker extent thalamus and amygdala, while controlling for gender, age, and corticosteroid inhaler use. In addition, stronger anxiety in response to distressing films was associated with lower volume of the pallidum, whereas general anxious and depressed mood was unrelated to subcortical structures. Thus, although there are no subcortical structural differences between young adults with asthma and healthy controls, longer asthma history, suboptimal management, and illness-related anxiety are reflected in lower gray matter volumes of subcortical structures, further emphasizing the importance of maintaining optimal asthma control. Keywords Structural magnetic resonance imaging . Gray matter volume . Asthma . Limbic system . Basal ganglia . Asthma management . Anxiety
Abbreviations ACQ CAS
Asthma Control Questionnaire Catastrophizing of Asthma Scale
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-019-00188-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
CNS FENO FEV1 HADS MRI N H L B I / NAEPP
Central nervous system Fractional exhaled nitric oxide Forced expiratory volume in the 1st second Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale Magnetic resonance imaging National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute/National Asthma Education and Prevention Program
* Thomas Ritz [email protected] 1
Department of Psychology, Southern Methodist University, P.O. Box 750442, Dallas, TX 75275-0442, USA
2
The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA
3
Advance MRI LLC, Frisco, TX, USA
4
The University of Texas at Dallas, Dallas, TX, USA
5
KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
Current knowledge about the brain
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