Department of Radiology, Affiliated Hospital of North Sichuan Medical College, No. 63 Wenhua Road, 637000, Nanchong, China.
Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China.
Clin Neuroradiol. 2021 Sep;31(3):721-728. doi: 10.1007/s00062-020-00966-3. Epub 2020 Oct 2.
To explore changes in functional connectivity (FC) within the sensorimotor network (SMN) and the relationship between the SMN and bilateral thalamus in patients with thalamic infarction (TI) using resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI). Also determined was whether those measures are useful for monitoring the functional recovery of somatosensory deficits.
The study included 31 patients with TI presenting somatosensory dysfunction and 31 controls who underwent clinical assessments and MRI scanning at 6 months after a stroke. An independent component analysis was used to identify the SMN. The mean time courses of SMN activity were extracted for each subject, and FC with the bilateral thalamus was assessed. Differences in connectivity strength were compared between groups. Finally, we correlated the altered FC values with clinical data from patients with TI.
Compared to controls, patients with TI showed decreases in FC within SMN in the ipsilesional posterior central gyrus (PCG) (Z-score = -4.581, cluster size = 171), but presented increased FC within the SMN in the ipsilesional supplementary motor area (SMA) (Z-score = 4.648, cluster size = 46). The FC values of the ipsilesional SMA correlated with the somatosensory function score of patients with TI (r = 0.426, P = 0.027). Increased FC was observed between the SMN and bilateral thalamus in patients with TI. The region exhibiting increased FC was adjacent to the lesion in the affected thalamus, while the area with increased FC overlapped the location of the lesion when the lesion was mirrored onto the unaffected thalamus.
The increased FC in the ipsilesional SMA and between the SMN and perilesional thalamus might reflect functional reorganization in patients with TI presenting somatosensory deficits.
使用静息态功能磁共振成像(rs-fMRI)探索丘脑梗死 (TI) 患者感觉运动网络 (SMN) 内功能连接 (FC) 的变化，以及 SMN 与双侧丘脑之间的关系。还确定了这些措施是否有助于监测体感缺陷的功能恢复。
本研究纳入了 31 名存在体感功能障碍的 TI 患者和 31 名对照组，他们在中风后 6 个月接受了临床评估和 MRI 扫描。采用独立成分分析来识别 SMN。为每个受试者提取 SMN 活动的平均时间过程，并评估与双侧丘脑的 FC。比较两组间连接强度的差异。最后，我们将改变的 FC 值与 TI 患者的临床数据相关联。
与对照组相比，TI 患者在同侧后中央回 (PCG) 的 SMN 内显示出 FC 降低 (Z 分数= -4.581，簇大小= 171)，但在同侧辅助运动区 (SMA) 的 SMN 内显示出 FC 增加 (Z 分数= 4.648，簇大小= 46)。同侧 SMA 的 FC 值与 TI 患者的体感功能评分相关 (r= 0.426，P= 0.027)。TI 患者的 SMN 与双侧丘脑之间观察到 FC 增加。表现出增加的 FC 的区域与受影响丘脑的病变相邻，而当病变镜像到未受影响的丘脑时，增加 FC 的区域与病变的位置重叠。
同侧 SMA 和 SMN 与病变周围丘脑之间的 FC 增加可能反映了存在体感缺陷的 TI 患者的功能重组。
