AUTHOR=Liu Yu-Ting , Zhang Hui-Xin , Li Hui-Jun , Chen Ting , Huang Ya-Qing , Zhang Lian , Huang Zhi-Chun , Liu Bin , Yang Ming 

TITLE=Aberrant Interhemispheric Connectivity in Obstructive Sleep Apnea–Hypopnea Syndrome

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Neurology

VOLUME=9

YEAR=2018

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neurology/articles/10.3389/fneur.2018.00314

DOI=10.3389/fneur.2018.00314

ISSN=1664-2295

ABSTRACT=<sec id="ST1"><title>Objective</title><p>To determine the changes in interhemispheric functional coordination in patients with obstructive sleep apnea–hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) relative to controls, using a recently introduced method of analysis: voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity (VMHC).</p></sec><sec id="ST2"><title>Methods</title><p>Twenty-nine patients with OSAHS and twenty-six normal sex-, age-, and education-matched controls were recruited and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data were obtained. We employed VMHC to analyze the interhemispheric functional connectivity differences between groups. The <italic>z</italic>-values of alterations in VMHC in brain region were correlated with clinical characteristics.</p></sec><sec id="ST3"><title>Results</title><p>Compared with controls, patients with OSAHS had significantly higher scores for body mass index (<italic>t</italic> = 5.749, <italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.001), apnea–hypopnea index (AHI; <italic>t</italic> = 7.706, <italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.001), oxygen desaturation index (<italic>t</italic> = 6.041, <italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.001), and Epworth sleepiness scale (<italic>t</italic> = 3.711, <italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.001), but significantly lower scores on the Rey–Osterrieth complex figure test-immediate recall (<italic>t</italic> = −3.727, <italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.05). On the same basis, the VMHC showed significant increases in bilateral calcarine cortex and precuneus. Moreover, significant, positive correlations were found in only these areas between the AHI and the VMHC change coefficients (<italic>r</italic> = 0.399, <italic>P</italic> = 0.032; <italic>r</italic> = 0.378, <italic>P</italic> = 0.043).</p></sec><sec id="ST4"><title>Conclusion</title><p>We found a memory defect in patients with OSAHS. The correlation between the abnormal VMHC and the AHI in patients with OSAHS suggested that AHI might be a key factor in cognitive dysfunction, which might offer new insights into the neural pathophysiology underlying OSAHS-related cognitive deficits.</p></sec>