Blood-brain barrier imaging can serve as a biomarker for progression of disease in adults with bipolar disorder, results from a small study suggest.
“While the pathophysiology of bipolar disorder remains poorly understood, converging evidence points to the presence of neuroinflammation in bipolar patients,” wrote Lyna Kamintsky, a PhD candidate at Dalhousie University, Halifax, N.S., and colleagues.
The researchers examined MRI data from 36 patients with bipolar disorder and compared them with 14 matched controls. The average age of the patients was 49 years and the average duration of illness was 28 years. The study was published in NeuroImage: Clinical (2019 Oct 22. doi: 10.1016/j.nicl.2019.102049).
“Leakage rates were considered pathological when exceeding 0.02, the 95th percentile of all values in a cohort of control subjects,” the researchers said. Overall, 10 subjects (all patients with bipolar disorder) met criteria for “extensive blood-brain barrier leakage.” The researchers found that those patients also had higher rates of chronic illness, more frequent and/or severe manic episodes, and more severe anxiety, depression, and social/occupational dysfunction, compared with those without blood-brain barrier leakage.
The patients with extensive blood-brain barrier leakage also had higher body mass indexes, greater risk of cardiovascular disease, and advanced heart age. In addition, all patients in this group had comorbid insulin resistance.
The study findings were limited by the small sample size, but , the researchers said.
The study was supported by the European Union’s Seventh Framework Program, the Nova Scotia Health Research Foundation, Brain Canada, and the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation. The researchers disclosed having no financial conflicts.
SOURCE: Kamintsky L et al. NeuroImage: Clinical. 2019 Oct 22. doi: 10.1016/j.nicl.2019.102049.