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. 2021 Jul;31(4):773-783.
doi: 10.1111/jon.12858. Epub 2021 Apr 5.

Aberrant brain voxel-wise resting state fMRI in patients with thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy

Wen Chen  1 , Qian Wu  1 , Lu Chen  1 , Jiang Zhou  1 , Huan-Huan Chen  2 , Xiao-Quan Xu  1 , Fei-Yun Wu  1 , Hao Hu  1
Affiliations

Aberrant brain voxel-wise resting state fMRI in patients with thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy

Wen Chen et al. J Neuroimaging. 2021 Jul.

Abstract

Background and purpose: Although ophthalmic complaints were mostly mentioned in thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy (TAO), emotional and psychological disturbances are increasingly concerned. We aimed to investigate the brain functional alteration in TAO patients by using resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) with the fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (fALFF), regional homogeneity (ReHo), and degree centrality (DC) methods.

Methods: Twenty-one consecutive TAO patients and 21 healthy controls (HCs) underwent rs-fMRI scans. The fALFF, ReHo, and DC values were compared between groups.

Results: Compared with HCs, TAO group showed decreased fALFF values in bilateral calcarine/left lingual gyrus and left middle occipital gyrus (MOG). Moreover, TAO group had decreased ReHo values in left MOG/inferior occipital gyrus/fusiform gyrus, while increased ReHo values in bilateral middle frontal gyrus (MFG)/superior frontal gyrus (SFG) than HCs. TAO group also showed decreased DC values in bilateral postcentral gyrus (PoCG)/precentral gyrus/superior parietal lobule and supplementary motor area, and increased DC values in left SFG/MFG and MFG. In TAO patients, ReHo value in left MOG was positively correlated with visual acuity (r = 0.524, p = 0.021), while ReHo values in bilateral MFGs were negatively correlated with cognitive scores (left/right: r = -0.476/-0.527, p = 0.039/0.020). DC value in left PoCG was negatively correlated with disease duration (r = -0.492, p = 0.033).

Conclusions: Our findings indicated that TAO patients had brain functional alterations in the visual network, executive control network, sensorimotor network, and attention network, which may reflect potential visual and cognitive dysfunctions.

Keywords: fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation; regional homogeneity, degree centrality; resting-state fMRI; thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy.

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References

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