Lin Simin, Nie Miaomiao, Wang Bingshan, Huang Qianwen, Zheng Hao, Chen Zhishang, Duan Shaoyin, Zhao Hengyu, Han Yi
Department of Radiology, Xiamen Cardiovascular Hospital of Xiamen University, School of Medicine, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China.
Department of Radiology, Zhongshan Hospital of Xiamen University, School of Medicine, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China.
Quant Imaging Med Surg. 2025 Sep 1;15(9):8505-8514. doi: 10.21037/qims-24-1680. Epub 2025 Aug 19.
Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the paranasal sinus and nasal cavity. Previous studies have demonstrated that patients with CRS have an increased risk of emotional and cognitive disorders. Although neuroimaging studies have identified brain alterations in CRS, the specific etiology of these neurological changes remains unclear. This study thus examined the abnormal brain networks in patients with CRS through use of a voxel-wise degree centrality (DC) approach.
In this cross-sectional study, 26 patients with CRS and 38 healthy controls (HCs) were enrolled for resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) scans. The DC value was calculated and correlated with clinical symptoms and with anxiety and depression scores in the CRS group. Moreover, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used to evaluate the diagnostic utility of DC in distinguishing patients from HCs.
Compared with HCs, patients with CRS had decreased DC values in the right precuneus and increased DC values in the left inferior temporal gyrus (ITG) (P<0.05, false-discovery rate corrected). In addition, a positive correlation was identified between the DC values in the left ITG and disease duration (R=0.5317; P=0.0052). ROC curves analysis indicated that the DC values in the right precuneus [area under the curve (AUC) =0.7945] and left ITG (AUC =0.7915) had significant diagnostic accuracy, indicating their potential utility as imaging biomarkers for CRS.
Altered DC in the right precuneus and the left ITG may play important roles in the pathological changes underlying CRS-related brain dysfunction.
慢性鼻-鼻窦炎（CRS）是鼻窦和鼻腔的一种慢性炎症性疾病。既往研究表明，CRS患者发生情绪和认知障碍的风险增加。尽管神经影像学研究已发现CRS患者存在脑部改变，但这些神经学变化的具体病因仍不清楚。因此，本研究通过体素级度中心性（DC）方法检查了CRS患者的异常脑网络。
在这项横断面研究中，纳入了26例CRS患者和38例健康对照（HC）进行静息态功能磁共振成像（rs-fMRI）扫描。计算CRS组的DC值，并将其与临床症状以及焦虑和抑郁评分进行相关性分析。此外，采用受试者工作特征（ROC）曲线分析来评估DC在区分患者与HC方面的诊断效用。
与HC相比,CRS患者右侧楔前叶的DC值降低，左侧颞下回（ITG）的DC值升高（P<0.05，校正错误发现率）。此外，左侧ITG的DC值与病程呈正相关（R=0.5317；P=0.0052）。ROC曲线分析表明，右侧楔前叶[曲线下面积（AUC）=0.7945]和左侧ITG（AUC =0.7915）的DC值具有显著的诊断准确性，表明它们作为CRS成像生物标志物的潜在效用。
右侧楔前叶和左侧ITG的DC改变可能在CRS相关脑功能障碍的病理变化中起重要作用。
