Evaluation of metabolic changes within the normal appearing gray and white matters in neurologically asymptomatic HIV-1-positive and HCV-positive patients: Magnetic resonance spectroscopy and immunologic correlation

Objective

The aim of the study was to evaluate early metabolic changes using proton MR spectroscopy (MRS) in asymptomatic HIV-1-positive and HCV-positive patients without abnormalities in the structural MR examination.

Methods

Sixty-five asymptomatic patients: 21 HIV-1-positive naive, 20 HIV-1-positive with combination antiretroviral therapy (cART), 9 HIV-1/HCV-positive naive, 15 HCV-positive naive and 18 normal subjects were enrolled in the study. The MRS examinations were performed with a 1.5 T MR scanner. Voxels were located in the following regions: posterior cingulate gyrus (PCG), anterior cingulate gyrus (ACG), parietal white matter (PWM), left basal ganglia (BG) and frontal white matter (FWM). The NAA/Cr, Cho/Cr, mI/Cr ratios and correlations of MRS measurements with the immunologic data were analyzed.

Results

There was a significant decrease (p < 0.05) of the NAA/Cr ratios in PCG, ACG and PWM regions in HIV-1-positive cART treated patients compared to the normal subjects. The significantly decreased NAA/Cr ratios in PWM and FWM were observed in HCV infected patients. The subjects with HIV-1/HCV co-infection revealed significantly lower NAA/Cr ratios in the ACG area. Other metabolite ratios in all analyzed regions, as well as the NAA/Cr ratios in BG showed no significant differences. The decrease of CD4n T cell count was associated with the decease of the NAA/Cr ratio in the PCG area and the increase of Cho/Cr ratio in the FWM region.

Conclusions

The metabolic changes – reduction of NAA/Cr ratios are most pronounced in HIV-1-positive patients using cART. The low CD4n T cell count is a risk factor for neurocognitive impairment in HIV-1-positive patients.