In stroke patients, remote thalamic alterations including iron deposition have been reported and attributed to the disruption of cortico-thalamic projections. Nevertheless, secondary thalamic degeneration has never been quantified so far in humans at the nucleus scale and its clinical impact is unknown. By using R2* mapping, we demonstrated (i) that iron accumulates with a focal distribution especially within the medio-dorsal nucleus and the pulvinar, (ii) that such focal thalamic iron accumulation is strongly linked to the initial stroke location, consistent with the known connectivity between thalamic nuclei and cortico-subcortical areas and (iii) is significantly impacting specific cognitive and emotional functions.
This abstract and the presentation materials are available to members only; a login is required.