Dong Yan, Jin Liang, Li Mengchun, Lian Ruofei, Wu Gongao, Xu Ruijuan, Zhang Xiaoli, Du Kaixian, Jia Tianming, Wang Haiyan, Zhao Shichao
Department of Pediatrics, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Zheng Zhou University, Zhengzhou, China.
Henan Key Laboratory of Child Brain Injury and Henan Pediatric Clinical Research Center, Third Affiliated Hospital and Institute of Neuroscience of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China.
Front Pediatr. 2023 Oct 20;11:1249789. doi: 10.3389/fped.2023.1249789. eCollection 2023.
This study aims to describe the characteristics of the brain network attributes in children diagnosed with Infantile Epileptic Spasms Syndrome (IESS) and to determine the influence exerted by adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH) or methylprednisolone (MP) on network attributes.
In this retrospective cohort study, we recruited 19 infants diagnosed with IESS and 10 healthy subjects as the control from the Pediatric Neurology Department at the Third Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University between October 2019 and December 2020. The first thirty-minute processed electroencephalograms (EEGs) were clipped and filtered into EEG frequency bands (2 s each). A comparative assessment was conducted between the IESS group and the controls as well as the pre- and post-treatment in the IESS group. Mutual information values for each EEG channel were collected and compared including characteristic path length (CPL), node degree (ND), clustering coefficient (CC), and betweenness centrality (BC), based on graph theory.
Comparing the control group, in the IESS group, there was an increase in CPL of the Delta band, and a decrease in ND and CC of the Delta band during the waking period, contrary to those during the sleeping period ( < 0.05), a decreased in CPL of the fast waves and an increase in ND and CC ( < 0.05) in the sleep-wake cycle, and a decrease in ND and CC of the Theta band in the waking phase. Post-treatment compared with the pre-treatment, during the waking ictal phase, there was a noted decrease in CPL in the Delta band and fast waves, while an increase was observed in ND and CC ( < 0.05).
The Delta band and fast waves are crucial components of the network attributes in IESS.
This investigation provides a precise characterization of the brain network in children afflicted with IESS, and lays the groundwork for predicting the prognosis using graph theory.
本研究旨在描述诊断为婴儿痉挛症综合征（IESS）的儿童脑网络属性特征，并确定促肾上腺皮质激素（ACTH）或甲泼尼龙（MP）对网络属性的影响。
在这项回顾性队列研究中，我们于2019年10月至2020年12月期间从郑州大学第三附属医院儿科神经科招募了19名诊断为IESS的婴儿和10名健康受试者作为对照。对最初30分钟处理后的脑电图（EEG）进行剪辑并过滤成EEG频段（每个2秒）。在IESS组和对照组之间以及IESS组治疗前后进行了比较评估。基于图论，收集并比较了每个EEG通道的互信息值，包括特征路径长度（CPL）、节点度（ND）、聚类系数（CC）和介数中心性（BC）。
与对照组相比，IESS组在清醒期Delta频段的CPL增加，Delta频段的ND和CC降低，与睡眠期相反（<0.05），在睡眠-清醒周期中快波的CPL降低，ND和CC增加（<0.05），在清醒期Theta频段的ND和CC降低。治疗后与治疗前相比，在清醒发作期，Delta频段和快波的CPL明显降低，而ND和CC增加（<0.05）。
Delta频段和快波是IESS网络属性的关键组成部分。
本研究为患IESS的儿童脑网络提供了精确表征，并为使用图论预测预后奠定了基础。
