Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University, No.45, Changchun Street, Xicheng District, Beijing 100053, China; Beijing Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Brain Informatics, No.45, Changchun Street, Xicheng District, Beijing 100053, China.
Department of Neurology, Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University, No.45, Changchun Street, Xicheng District, Beijing 100053, China.
Brain Res. 2024 Dec 1;1844:149140. doi: 10.1016/j.brainres.2024.149140. Epub 2024 Aug 5.
Nearly half of the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients showed hyperintensity of the corticospinal tract (CST+), yet whether brain functional pattern differs between CST+and CST- patients remains obscure. In the current study, 19 ALS CST+, 41 ALS CST- patients and 37 healthy controls (HC) underwent resting state fMRI scans. We estimated local activity and connectivity patterns via the Amplitude of Low Frequency Fluctuations (ALFF) and the Network-Based Statistic (NBS) approaches respectively. The ALS CST+patients did not differ from the CST- patients in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis functional rating scale revised (ALSFRS-R) score and disease duration. ALFF of the superior frontal gyrus (SFG) and the inferior frontal gyrus pars opercularis (OIFG) were highest in the HC and lowest in the ALS CST- patients, resulting in significant group differences (P<0.05). NBS analysis revealed a frontal network consisting of connections between SFG, OIFG, orbital frontal gyrus, middle cingulate cortex and the basal ganglia, which exhibited HC>ALS CST+ > ALS CST- group differences (P=0.037) as well. The ALFF of the OIFG was significantly correlated with ALSFRS-R (R=0.34, P=0.028) and mean connectivity of the frontal network was trend-wise significantly correlated with disease duration (R=-0.31, P=0.052) in the ALS CST- patients. However, these correlations were insignificant in ALS CST+patients (P values > 0.8). In conclusion, The ALS CST+patients exhibited different patterns of baseline functional activity and connectivity in the frontal cortex which may indicate a functional compensatory effect.
将近一半的肌萎缩侧索硬化症（ALS）患者出现皮质脊髓束（CST+）高信号，但 CST+和 CST-患者的脑功能模式是否存在差异尚不清楚。在本研究中，19 名 ALS CST+患者、41 名 ALS CST-患者和 37 名健康对照者（HC）接受了静息态 fMRI 扫描。我们分别采用低频振幅（ALFF）和基于网络的统计（NBS）方法来估计局部活动和连接模式。ALS CST+患者的肌萎缩侧索硬化功能评定量表修订版（ALSFRS-R）评分和疾病持续时间与 CST-患者无差异。额上回（SFG）和额下回眶部（OIFG）的 ALFF 在 HC 中最高，在 ALS CST-患者中最低，导致显著的组间差异（P<0.05）。NBS 分析显示了一个由 SFG、OIFG、眶额回、中扣带回和基底节之间的连接组成的额网络，其表现为 HC>ALS CST+>ALS CST-组间差异（P=0.037）。OIFG 的 ALFF 与 ALSFRS-R 显著相关（R=0.34，P=0.028），并且 ALS CST-患者的额网络的平均连接与疾病持续时间呈趋势性显著相关（R=-0.31，P=0.052）。然而，这些相关性在 ALS CST+患者中并不显著（P 值>0.8）。总之，ALS CST+患者的额皮质静息态功能活动和连接存在不同模式，这可能表明存在功能代偿效应。
