Institute of Information Engineering, China Jiliang University, 258 Xueyuan Street, Xiasha Higher Education Zone, Hangzhou 310018, China.
Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, S-17177 Stockholm, Sweden.
Tomography. 2021 Nov 1;7(4):675-687. doi: 10.3390/tomography7040056.
Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is an illness characterized by a diverse range of debilitating symptoms including autonomic, immunologic, and cognitive dysfunction. Although neurological and cognitive aberrations have been consistently reported, relatively little is known regarding the regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in ME/CFS. In this study, we studied a cohort of 31 ME/CSF patients (average age: 42.8 ± 13.5 years) and 48 healthy controls (average age: 42.9 ± 12.0 years) using the pseudo-continuous arterial spin labeling (PCASL) technique on a whole-body clinical 3T MRI scanner. Besides routine clinical MRI, the protocol included a session of over 8 min-long rCBF measurement. The differences in the rCBF between the ME/CSF patients and healthy controls were statistically assessed with voxel-wise and AAL ROI-based two-sample t-tests. Linear regression analysis was also performed on the rCBF data by using the symptom severity score as the main regressor. In comparison with the healthy controls, the patient group showed significant hypoperfusion (uncorrected voxel wise ≤ 0.001, FWE ≤ 0.01) in several brain regions of the limbic system, including the anterior cingulate cortex, putamen, pallidum, and anterior ventral insular area. For the ME/CFS patients, the overall symptom severity score at rest was significantly associated with a reduced rCBF in the anterior cingulate cortex. The results of this study show that brain blood flow abnormalities in the limbic system may contribute to ME/CFS pathogenesis.
肌痛性脑脊髓炎/慢性疲劳综合征 (ME/CFS) 是一种以多种使人虚弱的症状为特征的疾病,包括自主神经、免疫和认知功能障碍。尽管神经系统和认知异常一直有报道,但对于 ME/CFS 中的区域性脑血流 (rCBF) 相对知之甚少。在这项研究中,我们使用全身临床 3T MRI 扫描仪上的伪连续动脉自旋标记 (PCASL) 技术研究了 31 名 ME/CFS 患者(平均年龄:42.8 ± 13.5 岁)和 48 名健康对照者(平均年龄:42.9 ± 12.0 岁)的队列。除了常规临床 MRI 外,该方案还包括 8 分钟以上的 rCBF 测量。使用基于体素和 AAL ROI 的两样本 t 检验对 ME/CFS 患者和健康对照组之间的 rCBF 差异进行了统计学评估。还通过使用症状严重程度评分作为主要回归器对 rCBF 数据进行了线性回归分析。与健康对照组相比,患者组在前扣带皮质、壳核、苍白球和前腹侧岛叶等边缘系统的几个脑区表现出明显的低灌注(未校正体素-wise ≤0.001,FWE ≤0.01)。对于 ME/CFS 患者,静息时的整体症状严重程度评分与前扣带皮质 rCBF 减少显著相关。这项研究的结果表明,边缘系统的脑血流异常可能有助于 ME/CFS 的发病机制。