Department of Radiology, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Intelligent Imaging for Critical Brain Diseases, Shanghai, China.
Neuroradiology. 2024 May;66(5):775-784. doi: 10.1007/s00234-024-03300-7. Epub 2024 Jan 31.
Gliomas are the most common primary brain tumor. Currently, topological alterations of whole-brain functional network caused by gliomas are not fully understood. The work here clarified the topological reorganization of the functional network in patients with unilateral frontal low-grade gliomas (LGGs).
A total of 45 patients with left frontal LGGs, 19 with right frontal LGGs, and 25 healthy controls (HCs) were enrolled. All the resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) images of the subjects were preprocessed to construct the functional network matrix, which was used for graph theoretical analysis. A two-sample t-test was conducted to clarify the differences in global and nodal network metrics between patients and HCs. A network-based statistic approach was used to identify the altered specific pairs of regions in which functional connectivity in patients with LGGs.
The local efficiency, clustering coefficient, characteristic path length, and normalized characteristic path length of patients with unilateral frontal LGGs were significantly lower than HCs, while there were no significant differences of global efficiency and small-worldness between patients and HCs. Compared with the HCs, betweenness centrality, degree centrality, and nodal efficiency of several brain nodes were changed significantly in patients. Around the tumor and its adjacent areas, the inter- and intra-hemispheric connections were significantly decreased in patients with left frontal LGGs.
The patients with unilateral frontal LGGs have altered global and nodal network metrics and decreased inter- and intra-hemispheric connectivity. These topological alterations may be involved in functional impairment and compensation of patients.
神经胶质瘤是最常见的原发性脑肿瘤。目前，尚未充分了解神经胶质瘤引起的全脑功能网络拓扑改变。本研究旨在阐明单侧额部低级神经胶质瘤（LGG）患者功能网络的拓扑重组织。
共纳入 45 例左侧额部 LGG 患者、19 例右侧额部 LGG 患者和 25 名健康对照者（HCs）。对所有受试者的静息态功能磁共振成像（rs-fMRI）图像进行预处理，构建功能网络矩阵，用于图论分析。采用两样本 t 检验明确患者与 HCs 之间的全局和节点网络指标的差异。采用基于网络的统计方法识别 LGG 患者功能连接改变的特定区域对。
单侧额部 LGG 患者的局部效率、聚类系数、特征路径长度和归一化特征路径长度显著低于 HCs，而全局效率和小世界特性在患者与 HCs 之间无显著差异。与 HCs 相比，患者的几个脑节点的介数中心度、度中心度和节点效率显著改变。与 HCs 相比，左侧额部 LGG 患者肿瘤及其相邻区域的半球间和半球内连接明显减少。
单侧额部 LGG 患者的全局和节点网络指标发生改变，半球间和半球内连接减少。这些拓扑改变可能与患者的功能障碍和代偿有关。
