Table 2.
Cortical clusters showing significant differences in cortical thickness between the patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma in the before radiotherapy (pre-RT) group, after radiotherapy (post-RT-ED) group of the early-delayed stage, and the after radiotherapy group (post-RT-LD) of the late-delayed stage in this study. Clusters were obtained using Monte Carlo simulation with a threshold of p < 0.05, to provide cluster-wise correction for multiple comparisons. The cluster-wise p-value corresponds to the peak vertex showing greatest statistical difference within a cluster. Abbreviations: PreCG, precentral gyrus; PoCG, postcentral gyrus; cMFC, caudal middle frontal cortex; bSTS, bank of the superior temporal sulcus; MTC, middle temporal cortex; STC, superior temporal cortex; IPC, inferior parietal cortex; SMG, supramarginal gyrus; ICC, isthmus of the cingulate cortex; PreCUN, precuneus; LOC, lateral occipital cortex; ITC, inferior temporal cortex; FFG, fusiform gyrus; LING, lingual gyrus; SPC, superior parietal cortex; CUN, cuneus; SFC, superior frontal cortex.
| Between-group comparison | Index | Location | Cluster size (mm2) | No. of vertices | Peak Talairach Coordinates |
p-Value (× 10− 3) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| x | y | z | ||||||
| Post-RT-ED < Pre-RT | C1 | PreCG.L, PoCG.L, cMFC.L | 832.7 | 1929 | − 32.6 | − 24.2 | 44.6 | 42.1 |
| Post-RT-LD > Pre-RT | C2 | bSTS.L, MTC.L, STC.L, IPC.L, SMG.L | 902.4 | 1985 | − 45.1 | − 52.3 | 9.6 | 25.0 |
| C3 | ICC.L, PreCUN.L | 868.2 | 1868 | − 8.3 | − 48.7 | 26.6 | 31.8 | |
| C4 | LOC.L, ITC.L, MTC.L, FFG.L, IPC.L, LING.L | 2433.8 | 3673 | − 40.2 | − 71 | 7.6 | 0.1 | |
| C5 | IPC.L, SPC.L, PreCUN.L, CUN.L | 976.7 | 1788 | − 30.9 | − 74.5 | 17.8 | 14.6 | |
| C6 | IPC.R, ITC.R, MTC.R, LOC.R | 1750.4 | 2732 | 45.2 | − 67.6 | 12.3 | 0.1 | |
| Post-RT-LD > Post-RT-ED | C7 | PreCG.L, PoCG.L, cMFC.L | 991.7 | 2302 | − 38.4 | − 5.1 | 52.2 | 13.6 |
| C8 | PreCG.R, cMFC.R, SFC.R | 1468.6 | 3083 | 26.7 | − 10.9 | 62.5 | 0.80 | |