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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Neurosci.
Sec. Visual Neuroscience
Volume 18 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fnins.2024.1530967

Altered static and dynamic spontaneous brain activity in patients with dysthyroid optic neuropathy: a resting-state fMRI study

Provisionally accepted
Jinling Lu Jinling Lu 1Hao Hu Hao Hu 1Jiang Zhou Jiang Zhou 1Wenhao Jiang Wenhao Jiang 1Xiongying Pu Xiongying Pu 1Huanhuan Chen Huanhuan Chen 2Xiaoquan Xu Xiaoquan Xu 1*Feiyun Wu Feiyun Wu 1*
  • 1 Department of Radiology, First Affiliated Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China
  • 2 Department of Endocrinology, First Affiliated Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Liaoning Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    To investigate static and dynamic brain functional alterations in dysthyroid optic neuropathy (DON) using resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) with the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) and regional homogeneity (ReHo). Materials and methods: Fifty-seven thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy (TAO) patients (23 DON and 34 non-DON) and 27 healthy controls (HCs) underwent rs-fMRI scans. Static and dynamic ALFF (sALFF and dALFF) and ReHo (sReHo and dReHo) values were compared between groups. The support-vector machine (SVM) classification method was used to examine the diagnostic performance of the identified models. Results: Compared to non-DON patients, DON patients showed decreased sALFF in the bilateral lingual gyrus (LING) and right cuneus (CUN), alongside increased sALFF in the bilateral medial part of the superior frontal gyrus, right dorsolateral part of the superior frontal gyrus (SFGdor), and right precentral gyrus. DON patients also exhibited decreased dALFF in the left LING and right CUN, together with increased dALFF in the right orbital part of the middle frontal gyrus and right SFGdor in comparison to non-DON patients. Meanwhile, DON patients had lower sReHo in the right LING, and higher sReHo and dReHo in the right supramarginal gyrus compared to non-DON patients. When detecting DON, the dALFF model showed optimal diagnostic performance (AUC 0.9987). Conclusion: DON patients exhibited both static and dynamic brain functional alterations in visual, cognitive, and emotion-related brain regions, deepening our current understanding of the underlying neural mechanisms of this disease. Rs-fMRI-based metrics, especially dALFF, may serve as relevant neuroimaging markers for diagnosing DON.

    Keywords: Dysthyroid optic neuropathy, Amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation, regional homogeneity, dynamic analysis, resting state fMRI

    Received: 19 Nov 2024; Accepted: 27 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Lu, Hu, Zhou, Jiang, Pu, Chen, Xu and Wu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Xiaoquan Xu, Department of Radiology, First Affiliated Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China
    Feiyun Wu, Department of Radiology, First Affiliated Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China

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