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. 2024 Jun;23(3):1146-1156.
doi: 10.1007/s12311-023-01627-0. Epub 2023 Nov 7.

Relationship of Morphometrics and Symptom Severity in Female Type I Chiari Malformation Patients with Biological Resilience

Mohamad Motaz Al Samman  1 , Monica A Garcia  2 , Maitane García  3 , James R Houston  4 , Dorothy Loth  5 , Richard Labuda  6 , Sarel Vorster  7 , Petra M Klinge  8 , Francis Loth  9 , Douglas L Delahanty  2 , Philip A Allen  10
Affiliations

Relationship of Morphometrics and Symptom Severity in Female Type I Chiari Malformation Patients with Biological Resilience

Mohamad Motaz Al Samman et al. Cerebellum. 2024 Jun.

Abstract

In the present study we report the relationship among MRI-based skull and cervical spine morphometric measures as well as symptom severity (disability-as measured by Oswestry Head and Neck Pain Scale and social isolation-as measured by the UCLA Loneliness scale) on biomarkers of allostatic load using estrogen, interleukin-6, C-reactive protein, and cortisol in a sample of 46 CMI patients. Correlational analyses showed that McRae line length was negatively associated with interleukin-6 and C-reactive protein levels, and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) showed joint effects of morphometric measures (McRae line length, anterior CSF space) and symptom severity (disability and loneliness) on estrogen and intereukin-6 levels. These results are consistent with allostatic load. That is, when the combination of CSF crowding and self-report symptom (disability and loneliness) severity exceed the capacity of biological resilience factors, then biomarkers such as neuroprotective estrogen levels drop, rather than rise, with increasing symptom severity.

Keywords: Allostatic load; And disability; Biomarkers; Chiari malformation Type I; Loneliness; Morphometrics.

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References

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