Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Molecular Imaging and Functional Imaging, Department of Radiology, Zhongda Hospital, Medical School, Southeast University, Nanjing, China.
Center for Hearing and Deafness, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York, USA.
J Magn Reson Imaging. 2019 Sep;50(3):787-797. doi: 10.1002/jmri.26665. Epub 2019 Jan 29.
The thalamus is an integrative hub conveying sensory information between cortical areas and related to cognition. However, alterations of the thalamus following partial hearing deprivation remains unknown.
To investigate the modifications of the thalamus and its seven subdivisions in terms of structure, function, and perfusion in subjects with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL), as well as their associations with SNHL-induced cognitive impairments.
Cross-sectional study.
Thirty-seven bilateral long-term SNHL patients and 38 well-matched controls.
3 T/BOLD, T -weighted imaging, arterial spin labeling (ASL).
Quantitative measurements in the thalamus and subdivisions were obtained, including the relative volume, fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (fALFF) within slow 5 (0.01-0.027 Hz), slow 4 (0.027-0.073 Hz), and combined frequency (0.01-0.073 Hz), as well as the whole-brain functional connectivity. Twenty-five SNHL patients and 20 controls underwent ASL scanning. Then correlation analysis was computed between all significant changes and cognition tests.
Continuous and categorical variables were compared by independent-sample t-test and chi-square test, respectively. Quantitative MRI measurement comparisons were corrected for multiple comparison, and functional connectivity (FC) analysis used two-sample t-test with false-discovery rate correction. Area under the curve (AUC) in receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was applied to evaluate the power of alterations in differentiating SNHL and controls.
No significant difference in the relative volume and perfusion of seven thalamus subdivisions were observed, but a decrease in fALFF in SNHL. SNHL showed reduced thalamic connectivity with the cerebellum lobule VIII, ventral anterior cingulate cortex, insula, superior temporal gyrus, media temporal gyrus, medial frontal gyrus, Heschl's gyrus, and temporal pole. And some FC abnormalities exhibited positive correlations with cognitive tests and high discriminative power (0.8 < AUC < 1) in two groups.
SNHL led to decreased thalamic activity and widespread weakened connectivity with other brain areas.
2 Technical Efficacy Stage: 3 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2019;50:787-797.
丘脑是一个整合中枢，在皮质区之间传递感觉信息，与认知有关。然而，部分听觉剥夺后丘脑的变化尚不清楚。
探讨感音神经性听力损失（SNHL）患者丘脑及其 7 个亚区的结构、功能和灌注改变，及其与 SNHL 引起的认知障碍的关系。
横断面研究。
37 例双侧长期 SNHL 患者和 38 例匹配良好的对照者。
3T/BOLD、T1 加权成像、动脉自旋标记（ASL）。
在丘脑及其亚区获得定量测量值，包括相对体积、低频波动的分数幅度（fALFF），包括慢 5（0.01-0.027Hz）、慢 4（0.027-0.073Hz）和联合频率（0.01-0.073Hz），以及全脑功能连接。25 例 SNHL 患者和 20 例对照者进行了 ASL 扫描。然后，将所有显著变化与认知测试进行相关性分析。
连续变量和分类变量分别采用独立样本 t 检验和卡方检验进行比较。定量 MRI 测量值比较采用多重比较校正，功能连接（FC）分析采用两样本 t 检验，采用假发现率校正。受试者工作特征曲线分析中的曲线下面积（AUC）用于评估改变在区分 SNHL 和对照组方面的能力。
SNHL 患者丘脑 7 个亚区的相对体积和灌注无明显差异，但 fALFF 降低。SNHL 患者丘脑与小脑小叶 VIII、腹侧前扣带皮质、岛叶、颞上回、颞中回、内侧额回、Heschl 回和颞极的连接减少。一些 FC 异常与认知测试呈正相关，在两组中具有较高的判别能力（0.8<AUC<1）。
SNHL 导致丘脑活动减少，与其他脑区的广泛连接减弱。
2 技术功效阶段：3 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2019;50:787-797.
