Introduction

Sarcoidosis is a chronic inflammatory disease often associated with chronic fatigue. Prevalence of fatigue can be measured via neuropsychological testing. Its pathophysiology is insufficiently understood. Structural analysis might help with the development of novel treatment methods.

Methods

We recruited 30 sarcoidosis patients whose fatigue severity and depressive symptom presence was measured through validated neuropsychological self-assessment. T1-weighted structural images were acquired and VBM preprocessing was conducted. Total scores of these tests and subscales were correlated through multiple regression analysis to the brain morphometry.

Results

Fatigue severity positively correlated with gray matter volumes in the striatum, the cingulate cortex and the cerebellum and negatively in the parietal and temporal lobe and posterior insula. Subscale analysis indicated a correlation between cognitive fatigue and striatum involvement as well as between physical and psychosocial fatigue and cerebellar alterations.

Discussion

Structural analysis delineated two structural patterns associated with the presence of fatigue. One such pattern mainly seemed to involve structures with a focus on decision-making processes while the other indicated alterations in regions vital for perception. Fatigue seems to be a heterogeneous disease, where varying dimensions of reported symptoms correlate with different patterns of structural changes.

中文翻译：

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结节病患者疲劳的形态特征

介绍

结节病是一种慢性炎症性疾病，通常与慢性疲劳有关。疲劳的患病率可以通过神经心理学测试来衡量。其病理生理学尚未充分了解。结构分析可能有助于开发新的治疗方法。

方法

我们招募了 30 名结节病患者，他们的疲劳严重程度和抑郁症状的存在是通过经过验证的神经心理学自我评估来衡量的。获取 T1 加权结构图像并进行 VBM 预处理。这些测试和分量表的总分通过多元回归分析与大脑形态测量相关联。

结果

疲劳严重程度与纹状体、扣带回皮层和小脑的灰质体积呈正相关，而在顶叶、颞叶和后脑岛则呈负相关。分量表分析表明认知疲劳与纹状体受累之间以及身体和心理社会疲劳与小脑改变之间存在相关性。

讨论

结构分析描绘了与疲劳存在相关的两种结构模式。一种这样的模式似乎主要涉及以决策过程为重点的结构，而另一种则表明对感知至关重要的区域发生了变化。疲劳似乎是一种异质性疾病，其中报告的症状的不同维度与不同的结构变化模式相关。