Just like a jigsaw puzzle, scientists have been trying to piece together the connection between brain morphology and clinical characteristics in patients with unruptured intracranial aneurysms (UIAs). To solve this mystery, researchers conducted a comprehensive study that examined the brain’s structural features and white matter lesions in patients with UIA compared to healthy controls. Using advanced imaging techniques and cognitive assessments, they discovered that patients with UIA exhibited reduced cortical gyrification in certain brain regions and increased white matter lesions. These neural changes were associated with cognitive impairments, as indicated by lower scores on a cognitive assessment. Interestingly, the study also found a correlation between the brain changes and laboratory values, such as inflammatory markers and serum lipids. Moreover, patients with UIA experienced regional atrophy in the thalami, a structure deep within the brain. This groundbreaking research provides valuable insights into the potential neural mechanisms underlying cognitive changes in patients with UIA.

IntroductionStudies have found a varying degree of cognitive, psychosocial, and functional impairments in patients with unruptured intracranial aneurysms (UIAs), whereas the neural correlates underlying these impairments remain unknown.MethodsTo examine the brain morphological alterations and white matter lesions in patients with UIA, we performed a range of structural analyses to examine the brain morphological alterations in patients with UIA compared with healthy controls (HCs). Twenty-one patients with UIA and 23 HCs were prospectively enrolled into this study. Study assessment consisted of a brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan with high-resolution T1-weighted and T2-weighted imaging data, a Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), and laboratory tests including blood inflammatory markers and serum lipids. Brain MRI data were processed for cortical thickness, local gyrification index (LGI), volume and shape of subcortical nuclei, and white matter lesions.ResultsCompared to the HCs, patients with UIA showed no significant differences in cortical thickness but decreased LGI values in the right posterior cingulate cortex, retrosplenial cortex, cuneus, and lingual gyrus. In addition, decreased LGI values correlated with decreased MoCA score (r = 0.498, p = 0.021) and increased white matter lesion scores (r = −0.497, p = 0.022). The LGI values were correlated with laboratory values such as inflammatory markers and serum lipids. Patients with UIA also showed significant regional atrophy in bilateral thalami as compared to the HCs. Moreover, the LGI values were significantly correlated with thalamic volume in the HCs (r = 0.4728, p = 0.0227) but not in the patients with UIA (r = 0.11, p = 0.6350).DiscussionThe decreased cortical gyrification, increased white matter lesions, and regional thalamic atrophy in patients with UIA might be potential neural correlates of cognitive changes in UIA.

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