Abstract
Purpose: To investigate spontaneous brain activity amplitude alterations in single and relapsing optic neuritis (sON and rON, respectively) and their relationships with clinical variables.Methods: In total, 42 patients with sON, 35 patients with rON and 50 healthy volunteers were recruited. Resting-state functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (rs-fMRI) scans were acquired for all participants and compared to investigate the changes in the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFFs) among the three groups. The relationships between the ALFFs in regions with significant differences in the groups and clinical variables, including the logarithm of minimal angle of resolution (LogMAR), Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) score and disease duration, were further explored.Results: Compared with healthy volunteers, the sON and rON patients showed significantly decreased ALFFs in several regions of the occipital and temporal lobes (i.e., inferior occipital gyrus and superior temporal gyrus; corrected p < 0.01 using AlphaSim). The sON patients showed significantly increased ALFFs in the left caudate and certain regions in the frontal lobes (i.e., medial frontal gyrus), whereas the rON patients showed increased ALFFs in the bilateral inferior temporal gyrus and left medial frontal gyrus (corrected p < 0.01 using AlphaSim). Significantly decreased ALFFs were observed in the right inferior parietal lobule (IPL), left posterior cingulate and precuneus in the rON patients compared with those in the sON patients (corrected p < 0.01 using AlphaSim). Significant correlations were observed between the disease duration and ALFF in the left middle temporal gyrus, left inferior occipital gyrus, right lingual gyrus and right IPL (p < 0.05).Conclusion: Functional impairment and adaptation occurred in both the sON and rON patients. Impairment mainly involved the occipital cortex, and functional adaptions predominantly occurred in the frontal lobe. Functional damage was more severe in the rON patients than in the sON patients and correlated with the disease duration.
Highlights
Optic neuritis (ON) is a demyelinating inflammatory disease of the optic nerve, and it is strongly associated with multiple sclerosis (MS; Hickman et al, 2002; Miller et al, 2005) and neuromyelitis optica (NMO, called Devic’s disease; Wingerchuk et al, 1999)
The single optic neuritis (sON) patients showed a significant increase in amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) in the left middle frontal gyrus, right superior frontal gyrus, right middle cingulate gyrus, left medial frontal gyrus, left precentral gyrus and left caudate
The Relapsing optic neuritis (rON) patients demonstrated significantly decreased ALFFs in the left cuneus/precuneus, bilateral inferior temporal gyrus, bilateral lingual gyrus, right middle occipital gyrus, and left superior temporal gyrus and increased ALFFs in the bilateral inferior gyrus and left medial frontal gyrus compared to normal controls
Summary
Optic neuritis (ON) is a demyelinating inflammatory disease of the optic nerve, and it is strongly associated with multiple sclerosis (MS; Hickman et al, 2002; Miller et al, 2005) and neuromyelitis optica (NMO, called Devic’s disease; Wingerchuk et al, 1999). As to the resting state, the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF), an alternative index in which the square root of power spectrum was integrated in a low-frequency range, has been suggested to reflect the intensity of regional spontaneous brain activity (Kiviniemi et al, 2000; Zang et al, 2007), it is considered as a measurement of the amplitude of regional spontaneous brain activity It has already been applied in several areas of neuroscience and neurological diseases (Liu et al, 2011a,b, 2012; Kwak et al, 2012; Turner et al, 2013). This study aimed to investigate the brain activity changes of sON and rON patients and correlate the functional changes with clinical variables
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