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Regional Brain Tissue Displacement and Strain is Elevated in Subjects with Chiari Malformation Type I Compared to Healthy Controls: A Study Using DENSE MRI

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Abstract

While the degree of cerebellar tonsillar descent is considered the primary radiologic marker of Chiari malformation type I (CMI), biomechanical forces acting on the brain tissue in CMI subjects are less studied and poorly understood. In this study, regional brain tissue displacement and principal strains in 43 CMI subjects and 25 controls were quantified using a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) methodology known as displacement encoding with stimulated echoes (DENSE). Measurements from MRI were obtained for seven different brain regions—the brainstem, cerebellum, cingulate gyrus, corpus callosum, frontal lobe, occipital lobe, and parietal lobe. Mean displacements in the cerebellum and brainstem were found to be 106 and 64% higher, respectively, for CMI subjects than controls (p < .001). Mean compression and extension strains in the cerebellum were 52 and 50% higher, respectively, in CMI subjects (p < .001). Brainstem mean extension strain was 41% higher in CMI subjects (p < .001), but no significant difference in compression strain was observed. The other brain structures revealed no significant differences between CMI and controls. These findings demonstrate that brain tissue displacement and strain in the cerebellum and brainstem might represent two new biomarkers to distinguish between CMI subjects and controls.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Conquer Chiari and the National Institutes of Health, NINDS R15 (Grant No. 1R15NS109957-01A1) for providing funding for this research work. This work was also supported by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under award number UL1TR002378. The thoughtful comments of Sheila Pearson at The University of Akron are also acknowledged.

Conflict of interest

All authors declared that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Conquer Chiari Research Center, Department of Biomedical Engineering, The University of Akron, Akron, OH, 44325-3903, USA

    Blaise Simplice Talla Nwotchouang, Maggie S. Eppelheimer & Francis Loth

  2. MIM Software Inc, Beachwood, Ohio, USA

    Soroush Heidari Pahlavian

  3. Department of Radiology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA

    Jack W. Barrow

  4. Department of Neurosurgery, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Daniel L. Barrow

  5. Radiology & Imaging Sciences and Biomedical Engineering, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, USA

    Deqiang Qiu & John N. Oshinski

  6. Conquer Chiari Research Center, Department of Psychology, The University of Akron, Akron, OH, USA

    Philip A. Allen

  7. Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Department of Bioengineering, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA

    Rouzbeh Amini

  8. Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Akron, Akron, OH, USA

    Francis Loth

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  1. Blaise Simplice Talla Nwotchouang
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Correspondence to Blaise Simplice Talla Nwotchouang.

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Nwotchouang, B.S.T., Eppelheimer, M.S., Pahlavian, S.H. et al. Regional Brain Tissue Displacement and Strain is Elevated in Subjects with Chiari Malformation Type I Compared to Healthy Controls: A Study Using DENSE MRI. Ann Biomed Eng 49, 1462–1476 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-020-02695-7

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