TY - JOUR T1 - Structural brain changes related to disease duration in patients with asthma JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J VL - 38 IS - Suppl 55 SP - p2223 AU - Andreas von Leupoldt AU - Stefanie Brassen AU - Hans Jörg Baumann AU - Hans Klose AU - Christian Büchel Y1 - 2011/09/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/38/Suppl_55/p2223.abstract N2 - Dyspnea is the impairing, cardinal symptom patients with asthma repeatedly experience over the course of the disease. However, its accurate perception is also crucial for timely initiation of treatment. Reduced perception of dyspnea is associated with negative treatment outcome, but the underlying brain mechanisms of perceived dyspnea in patients with asthma remain poorly understood. We examined, whether increasing disease duration of asthma is related to structural brain changes and studied the associations between structural brain changes and perceived dyspnea.By using magnetic resonance imaging in combination with voxel-based morphometry, gray matter volumes of the insular cortex and brainstem periaqueductal grey (PAG) were examined in fourteen patients with mild-to-moderate asthma and correlated with asthma duration and perceived affective unpleasantness of resistive load induced dyspnea.Whereas no associations were observed for the insular cortex, longer duration of asthma was associated with increased gray matter volume in the PAG. Moreover, increased PAG gray matter volume was related to reduced ratings of dyspnea unpleasantness.The present results demonstrate that increasing disease duration is associated with increased PAG gray matter volume in patients with mild-to-moderate asthma. This structural brain change might contribute to reduced perception of dyspnea in some patients with asthma and, thus, negatively impact treatment outcome. ER -