Clustering of local diffusion features reveals altered thalamic topography in newborns with congenital heart defects

Motivation: Structural connectivity in the thalamus, essential for cortical-subcortical communication, is known to be disrupted in congenital heart defect (CHD) patients. Yet, assessing thalamic nuclei via local diffusion characteristics in vivo remains challenging. Goal(s): We aimed to validate a diffusion-based clustering method to map the developing thalamus and explore topological differences between CHD infants and healthy controlsApproach: By refining a segmentation method and employing k-means and GMM clustering, we characterized thalamic nucleiResults: Notable volume reductions in six thalamic clusters were identified in CHD infants, with significant mediodorsal nucleus group alterations, pertinent to prefrontal connectivityImpact: Our validated segmentation technique enables robust delineation of thalamic nuclei in vivo, unveiling developmental alterations in CHD infants. This advancement paves the way for targeted clinical interventions and improves neurodevelopmental outcomes prediction