Neuroimaging evidence of brain abnormalities in mastocytosis.

N Boddaert, A Salvador, M O Chandesris, H Lemaître, D Grévent, C Gauthier, O Naggara, S Georgin-Lavialle, D S Moura, F Munsch, N Jaafari, M Zilbovicius, O Lortholary, R Gaillard, O Hermine
Transl Psychiatry. 2017-08-01; 7(8): e1197-e1197
DOI: 10.1038/tp.2017.137

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Comment in
Transl Psychiatry. 2018 May 10;8(1):95.

Mastocytosis is a rare disease in which chronic symptoms are related to mast cell
accumulation and activation. Patients can display depression-anxiety-like
symptoms and cognitive impairment. The pathophysiology of these symptoms may be
associated with tissular mast cell infiltration, mast cell mediator release or
both. The objective of this study is to perform morphological or functional brain
analyses in mastocytosis to identify brain changes associated with this mast cell
disorder. We performed a prospective and monocentric comparative study to
evaluate the link between subjective psycho-cognitive complaints, psychiatric
evaluation and objective medical data using magnetic resonance imaging with
morphological and perfusion sequences (arterial spin-labeled perfusion) in 39
patients with mastocytosis compared with 33 healthy controls. In the test cohort
of 39 mastocytosis patients with psycho-cognitive complaints, we found that 49%
of them had morphological brain abnormalities, mainly abnormal punctuated white
matter abnormalities (WMA). WMA were equally frequent in cutaneous mastocytosis
patients and indolent forms of systemic mastocytosis patients (42% and 41% of
patients with WMA, respectively). Patients with WMA showed increased perfusion in
the putamen compared with patients without WMA and with healthy controls. Putamen
perfusion was also negatively correlated with depression subscores. This study
demonstrates, for we believe the first time, a high prevalence of morphological
and functional abnormalities in the brains of mastocytosis patients with
neuropsychiatric complaints. Further studies are required to determine the
mechanism underpinning this association and to ascertain its specificity.

 

Auteurs Bordeaux Neurocampus