Altered spontaneous brain activity patterns in strabismus with amblyopia patients using amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation: a resting-state fMRI study

Numerous investigations studying the brain functional activity of the tinnitus patients have indicated that neurological changes are important findings of this kind of disease. However, the pulsatile tinnitus (PT) patients were excluded in previous studies because of the totally different mechanisms of the two subtype tinnitus. The aim of this study is to investigate whether altered baseline brain activity presents in patients with PT using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) technique. The present study used unilateral PT patients (n=42) and age-, sex-, and education-matched normal control subjects (n=42) to investigate the changes in structural and amplitude of low-frequency (ALFF) of the brain. Also, we analyzed the relationships between these changes with clinical data of the PT patients. Compared with normal controls, PT patients did not show any structural changes. PT patients showed significant increased ALFF in the bilateral precuneus, and bilateral inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and decreased ALFF in multiple occipital areas. Moreover, the increased THI score and PT duration was correlated with increased ALFF in precuneus and bilateral IFG. The abnormalities of spontaneous brain activity reflected by ALFF measurements in the absence of structural changes may provide insights into the neural reorganization in PT patients.

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Altered spontaneous brain activity patterns in patients with hyperthyroidism exophthalmos using amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation: a resting-state fMRI study

International Journal of Ophthalmology ◽

10.18240/ijo.2021.12.22 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (12) ◽

pp. 1957-1962

Author(s):

Ling Ling ◽

◽

Yu Guo ◽

Rong-Bin Liang ◽

Hui-Ye Shu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Resting State ◽

Brain Activity ◽

Activity Patterns ◽

Clinical Manifestations ◽

Area Under The Curve ◽

Low Frequency ◽

Roc Curves ◽

Frequency Fluctuation ◽

Roc Curve Analysis ◽

Spontaneous Brain Activity

AIM: To assess changed spontaneous brain activity in hyperthyroid exophthalmos (HE) patients by the amplitude of the low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) method, and to analyze the correlation between brain activity and ALFF values in these patients. METHODS: Totally 18 HE and 18 hyperthyroid non-exophthalmos (HNE) patients were enrolled. The participants were tested by resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were generated to classify the ALFF values of the study population. Pearson’s correlation analysis was utilized to evaluate the relationship between the ALFF values obtained from different brain areas and clinical manifestations. RESULTS: Contrary to HNE patients, we observed lower ALFF values in the left calcarine fissure and surrounding cortex (LCFSC) in HE patients. In the ROC curve analysis of the LCFSC, the area under the curve reflected a high degree of accuracy. In addition, there was positive correlation between mean ALFF values of the LCFSC and the best-corrected visual acuity of the affected eyes. CONCLUSION: The study displays abnormal brain activity in LCFSC in patients with HE, which might suggest pathological mechanism of visual impairment of HE patients.

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