Hu Jinghua, Xu Jin-Jing, Shang Song'an, Chen Huiyou, Yin Xindao, Qi Jianwei, Wu Yuanqing
Department of Otolaryngology, Nanjing First Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China.
Department of Radiology, Nanjing First Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China.
Front Neurosci. 2021 Oct 5;15:752419. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2021.752419. eCollection 2021.
The central nervous mechanism of acute tinnitus is different from that of chronic tinnitus, which may be related to the difference of cerebral blood flow (CBF) perfusion in certain regions. To verify this conjecture, we used arterial spin labeling (ASL) perfusion magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in this study to compare the CBF alterations of patients with acute and chronic tinnitus. The current study included patients with chronic tinnitus ( = 35), acute tinnitus ( = 30), and healthy controls ( = 40) who were age-, sex-, and education-matched. All participants underwent MRI scanning and then ASL images were obtained to measure CBF of the entire brain and analyze the differences between groups as well as the correlations with tinnitus characteristics. The chronic tinnitus group showed increased z-CBF in the right superior temporal gyrus (STG) and superior frontal gyrus (SFG) when compared with the acute tinnitus patients. Further connectivity analysis found enhanced CBF connectivity between the right STG and fusiform gyrus (FG), the right SFG and left middle occipital gyrus (MOG), as well as the right parahippocampal gyrus (PHG). Moreover, in the chronic tinnitus group, the tinnitus handicap questionnaire (THQ) score was positively correlated with the normalized z-CBF of right STG ( = 0.440, = 0.013). Our results confirmed that the CBF changes in some brain regions were different between acute and chronic tinnitus patients, which was correlated with certain tinnitus characteristics. This is of great value to further research on chronicity of tinnitus, and ASL has a promising application in the measurement of CBF.
急性耳鸣的中枢神经机制与慢性耳鸣不同，这可能与特定区域脑血流（CBF）灌注的差异有关。为验证这一推测，我们在本研究中采用动脉自旋标记（ASL）灌注磁共振成像（MRI）来比较急性和慢性耳鸣患者的CBF变化。本研究纳入了年龄、性别和教育程度匹配的慢性耳鸣患者（n = 35）、急性耳鸣患者（n = 30）和健康对照者（n = 40）。所有参与者均接受MRI扫描，然后获取ASL图像以测量全脑的CBF，并分析组间差异以及与耳鸣特征的相关性。与急性耳鸣患者相比，慢性耳鸣组右侧颞上回（STG）和额上回（SFG）的标准化CBF升高。进一步的连通性分析发现，右侧STG与梭状回（FG）、右侧SFG与左侧枕中回（MOG）以及右侧海马旁回（PHG）之间的CBF连通性增强。此外，在慢性耳鸣组中，耳鸣致残问卷（THQ）评分与右侧STG的标准化z - CBF呈正相关（r = 0.440，P = 0.013）。我们的结果证实，急性和慢性耳鸣患者某些脑区的CBF变化不同，这与特定的耳鸣特征相关。这对耳鸣慢性化的进一步研究具有重要价值，并且ASL在CBF测量方面具有广阔的应用前景。
