Abstract
To explore the potential alterations in cerebral blood flow (CBF) and functional connectivity of recent onset post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) induced by a single prolonged trauma exposure, we recruited 20 survivors experiencing the same coal mining flood disaster as the PTSD (n = 10) and non-PTSD (n = 10) group, respectively. The pulsed arterial spin labeling (ASL) images were acquired with a 3.0T MRI scanner and the partial volume (PV) effect in the images was corrected for better CBF estimation. Alterations in CBF were analyzed using both uncorrected and PV-corrected CBF maps. By using altered CBF regions as regions-of-interest, seed-based functional connectivity analysis was then performed. While only one CBF deficit in right corpus callosum of PTSD patients was detected using uncorrected CBF, three more regions (bilateral frontal lobes and right superior frontal gyrus) were identified using PV-corrected CBF. Furthermore, the regional CBF of right superior frontal gyrus exhibited significantly negative correlation with the symptom severity (r = −0.759, p = 0.018). The resting-state functional connectivity analysis revealed increased connectivity between left frontal lobe and right parietal lobe. The results indicated the symptom-specific perfusion deficits and an aberrant connectivity in memory-related regions of PTSD patients when using PV-corrected ASL data. It also suggested that PV-corrected CBF exhibits more subtle changes that may be beneficial to perfusion and connectivity analysis.
Highlights
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder that develops after exposure to a terrifying event or ordeal in which grave physical harm occurred or was threatened [1]
The present study investigated differences in whole-brain cerebral blood flow (CBF) maps and functional connectivity of survivors with and without recent onset PTSD from a coal mining flood disaster, using the pulsed ASL (PASL) sequence
The major contributions of this study are in two aspects: First, we found some symptom-specific CBF and functional connectivity alterations in PTSD patients
Summary
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder that develops after exposure to a terrifying event or ordeal in which grave physical harm occurred or was threatened [1]. Perfusion and Functional Connectivity Study for PTSD Using ASL MRI with PTSD. In these studies, an atrophy of the hippocampus [2, 3], as well as volumetric changes of the amygdala [4] and anterior cingulate gyrus [4] have been consistently reported. Functional neuroimaging studies have identified altered activations in the cingulate cortex [5], medial prefrontal cortex [6], and amygdala [6]. A series of volumetric and cortical thickness alterations were identified for this kind of PTSD [1, 3], without exploring possible alterations on perfusion and functional connectivity of the same subjects
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