The Cerebellum Posterior Lobe Associates with the Exophthalmos of Primary Hyperthyroidism: A Resting-State fMRI Study.

You-Lan Min,Yi Shao,Yong-Qiang Shu,Qing Yuan,Yu-Xin Liu,Wen-Feng Liu,Qi Lin,Biao Li,Wen-Qing Shi,Meng-Yao Zhang,Pei-Wen Zhu

doi:10.1155/2019/8135671

Abstract

Background Exophthalmos occurs in patients with primary hyperthyroidism. There were few studies about the changes of brain functional networks of patients with exophthalmos of primary hyperthyroidism (EOPH). However, differences in spontaneous brain activity in patients with EOPH remain unclear. Objective This study explored alterations in the brain functional networks of patients with EOPH using a voxel-wise degree centrality (DC) method. Methods A total of 20 patients with EOPH (8 men and 12 women) were enrolled. In addition, 20 patients with primary hyperthyroidism without exophthalmos, matched in age, sex, and education status, were enrolled as a control group. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale was used to assess the anxiety and depression status of participants. All participants were examined using resting-state functional MRI. Changes in spontaneous brain activity were investigated using the DC method. To distinguish between the DC values of the patients with EOPH and those of the control group, we analyzed the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. The interrelationships between the DC values and clinical variables in the patients with EOPH were evaluated using Pearson's correlation coefficient. Results Patients with EOPH exhibited notably lower DC values in the cerebellum posterior lobe than the control group. In addition, there were negative correlations between the anxiety scores (AS) and the depression scores (DS) and DC values of the cerebellum posterior lobe. The ROC curve analysis of the cerebellum posterior lobe demonstrated that the area under the curve method had a high diagnostic accuracy. Conclusions Our study was the first, to our knowledge, to explore changes in the brains of patients with EOPH using the DC method. The DC value was significantly different in the cerebellum posterior lobe in patients with EOPH, indicating that the cerebellum posterior lobe is associated with EOPH.

Highlights

Primary hyperthyroidism is a common clinical syndrome, which is caused by excessive synthesis and release of thyroid hormones
Significant differences existed in the duration of hyperthyroidism (p 0.046), the best-corrected right-eye visual acuity (p 0.009), the best-corrected lefteye visual acuity (p 0.012), and the anxiety (p < 0.001) and depression scores (p < 0.001) in the two groups
We demonstrated altered intrinsic brain connectivity patterns of the cerebellum posterior lobe in individuals with exophthalmos of primary hyperthyroidism (EOPH). e EOPH group exhibited significantly decreased degree centrality (DC) signal values in the cerebellum posterior lobe

Summary

Introduction

Primary hyperthyroidism is a common clinical syndrome, which is caused by excessive synthesis and release of thyroid hormones. Exophthalmos of primary hyperthyroidism (EOPH) is characterized by extraocular muscle hypertrophy, an increase in muscle tension, and ocular movement disorder [5]. Exophthalmos occurs in patients with primary hyperthyroidism. Ere were few studies about the changes of brain functional networks of patients with exophthalmos of primary hyperthyroidism (EOPH). Is study explored alterations in the brain functional networks of patients with EOPH using a voxel-wise degree centrality (DC) method. 20 patients with primary hyperthyroidism without exophthalmos, matched in age, sex, and education status, were enrolled as a control group. Patients with EOPH exhibited notably lower DC values in the cerebellum posterior lobe than the control group. Our study was the first, to our knowledge, to explore changes in the brains of patients with EOPH using the DC method. Our study was the first, to our knowledge, to explore changes in the brains of patients with EOPH using the DC method. e DC value was significantly different in the cerebellum posterior lobe in patients with EOPH, indicating that the cerebellum posterior lobe is associated with EOPH

Methods

Results

Conclusion