Yue KC, Zhu YY, Sun JW, Wu XT, Liu WJ, Shi HF. Imaging characteristics of brain microstructure and cerebral perfusion in Crohn’s disease patients with anxiety: A prospective comparative study. World J Gastroenterol 2025; 31(4): 99014 [DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v31.i4.99014]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Hai-Feng Shi, PhD, MD, Doctor, Department of Radiology, The Affiliated Changzhou Second People's Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Changzhou Medical Center, No. 68 Middle Lake Road, Wujin District, Changzhou 213000, Jiangsu Province, China. doctorstone771@163.com
Research Domain of This Article
Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging
Article-Type of This Article
Prospective Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Ke-Cen Yue, Xin-Tong Wu, Dalian Medical University, Dalian 116044, Liaoning Province, China
Ke-Cen Yue, Jing-Wen Sun, Xin-Tong Wu, Hai-Feng Shi, Department of Radiology, The Affiliated Changzhou Second People's Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Changzhou Medical Center, Changzhou 213000, Jiangsu Province, China
Ying-Yin Zhu, Department of Radiology, Suzhou 100 Hospital, Suzhou 215000, Jiangsu Province, China
Wen-Jia Liu, Department of Gastroenterology, The Affiliated Changzhou Second People's Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Changzhou Medical Center, Changzhou 213000, Jiangsu Province, China
Co-first authors: Ke-Cen Yue and Ying-Yin Zhu.
Co-corresponding authors: Wen-Jia Liu and Hai-Feng Shi.
Author contributions: All authors contributed to the study conception and design; Yue KC, Sun JW, and Zhu YY carried out the studies, participated in collecting data, and drafted the manuscript; Yue KC and Wu XT performed the statistical analysis and participated in its design; Yue KC, Shi HF, and Liu WJ participated in the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data and drafted the manuscript; All authors read and approved the final manuscript. Yue KC performed image data collection and data analysis and prepared the first draft of the manuscript. Zhu YY was responsible for patient screening and collection of clinical data. Both authors have made crucial and indispensable contributions towards the completion of the project and thus qualified as the co-first authors of the paper. Both Shi HF and Liu WJ have played important and indispensable roles in the experimental design, data interpretation and manuscript preparation as the co-corresponding authors.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Affiliated Changzhou Second People’s Hospital of Nanjing Medical University (approval number KY039-01).
Informed consent statement: Written informed consent was obtained from the parents.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: The data set supporting the results of this article are included within the article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Hai-Feng Shi, PhD, MD, Doctor, Department of Radiology, The Affiliated Changzhou Second People's Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Changzhou Medical Center, No. 68 Middle Lake Road, Wujin District, Changzhou 213000, Jiangsu Province, China. doctorstone771@163.com
Received: July 11, 2024 Revised: November 13, 2024 Accepted: December 9, 2024 Published online: January 28, 2025 Processing time: 171 Days and 22.1 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Anxiety is a common comorbidity in patients with Crohn’s disease (CD). Data on the imaging characteristics of brain microstructure and cerebral perfusion in CD with anxiety are limited.
AIM
To compare the imaging characteristics of brain microstructure and cerebral perfusion among CD patients with or without anxiety and healthy individuals.
METHODS
This prospective comparative study enrolled consecutive patients with active CD and healthy individuals who visited the study hospital between January 2022 and January 2023. Anxiety was measured using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale-Anxiety. The imaging characteristics of brain microstructure and cerebral perfusion were measured by diffusion kurtosis imaging and intravoxel incoherent motion.
RESULTS
A total of 57 participants were enrolled. Among the patients with active CD, 16 had anxiety. Compared with healthy individuals, patients with active CD demonstrated significantly lower radial kurtosis values in the right cerebellar region 6, lower axial kurtosis (AK) values in the right insula, left superior temporal gyrus, and right thalamus, and higher slow and fast apparent diffusion coefficients (ADCslow and ADCfast) in the bilateral frontal lobe, bilateral temporal lobe, and bilateral insular lobe (all P < 0.05). Compared with patients with CD without anxiety, patients with CD and anxiety exhibited significantly higher ADCslow values in the left insular lobe and lower AK values in the right insula and right anterior cuneus (all P < 0.05).
CONCLUSION
There are variations in brain microstructure and perfusion among CD patients with/without anxiety and healthy individuals, suggesting potential use in assessing anxiety-related changes in active CD.
Core Tip: The imaging characteristics of brain microstructure and cerebral perfusion measured by diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) and intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) vary significantly among Crohn’s disease (CD) patients with or without anxiety and healthy individuals. IVIM and DKI parameters may be used as imaging biomarkers to assess the brain microstructure and perfusion changes associated with anxiety in patients with active CD.
