Department of Neurology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Sichuan, 610041, China.
Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), Department of Radiology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Sichuan, 610041, China.
Sci Rep. 2018 Jul 12;8(1):10580. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-28778-z.
This study used resting-state functional MRI (r-fMRI) to evaluate intrinsic brain activity in drug-naive patients with essential tremor (ET) with and without head tremor. We enrolled 20 patients with ET with hand and head tremor (h-ET), 27 patients with ET without head tremor (a-ET), and 27 healthy controls (HCs). All participants underwent r-fMRI scans on a 3-T MR system. The amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) of blood oxygen level-dependent signals was used to characterize regional cerebral function. We identified increased ALFF value in the bilateral posterior lobe of cerebellum in the h-ET patients relative to a-ET and HCs and demonstrated that h-ET is related to abnormalities in the cerebello-cortical areas, while the a-ET is related to abnormalities in the thalamo-cortical areas. In addition, we observed the ALFF abnormality in the cerebellum (left cerebellum VIII and right cerebellum VI) correlated with the tremor score in h-ET patients and abnormal ALFF in the left precentral gyrus correlated with the age at onset and disease duration in h-ET patients. These findings may be helpful for facilitating further understanding of the potential mechanisms underlying different subtypes of ET.
本研究使用静息态功能磁共振成像（r-fMRI）评估了无震颤药物治疗的原发性震颤（ET）伴或不伴头部震颤患者的内在大脑活动。我们纳入了 20 例手部和头部震颤的 ET 患者（h-ET）、27 例无头部震颤的 ET 患者（a-ET）和 27 名健康对照者（HCs）。所有参与者均在 3.0T 磁共振系统上进行 r-fMRI 扫描。血氧水平依赖信号的低频振幅（ALFF）用于表征局部脑功能。我们发现 h-ET 患者双侧小脑后叶的 ALFF 值升高，与 a-ET 和 HCs 相比，并表明 h-ET 与小脑皮质区域的异常有关，而 a-ET 与丘脑皮质区域的异常有关。此外，我们观察到 h-ET 患者的小脑（左侧小脑 VIII 和右侧小脑 VI）的 ALFF 异常与震颤评分相关，而 h-ET 患者的左侧中央前回的异常 ALFF 与发病年龄和病程相关。这些发现可能有助于进一步了解不同 ET 亚型的潜在机制。
