Altered regional and circuit resting-state activity in patients with occult spastic diplegic cerebral palsy

Xuetao Mu; Zhiqun Wang; Binbin Nie; Shaofeng Duan; Qiaozhi Ma; Guanghui Dai; Chunnan Wu; Yuru Dong; Baoci Shan; Lin Ma

doi:10.1016/j.pedneo.2017.10.003

Altered regional and circuit resting-state activity in patients with occult spastic diplegic cerebral palsy

Pediatr Neonatol. 2018 Aug;59(4):345-351. doi: 10.1016/j.pedneo.2017.10.003. Epub 2017 Oct 7.

Authors

Xuetao Mu¹, Zhiqun Wang², Binbin Nie³, Shaofeng Duan³, Qiaozhi Ma⁴, Guanghui Dai⁵, Chunnan Wu⁴, Yuru Dong⁴, Baoci Shan³, Lin Ma⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of MRI, The General Hospital of Chinese People's Armed Police Forces, Beijing, 100039, China. Electronic address: muxuetao091@163.com.
² Department of Radiology, Dongfang Hospital, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, 100078, China.
³ Key Laboratory of Nuclear Analysis Techniques, Beijing Engineering Research Center of Radiographic Techniques and Equipment, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
⁴ Department of MRI, The General Hospital of Chinese People's Armed Police Forces, Beijing, 100039, China.
⁵ Neurosurgical Institute, The General Hospital of Chinese People's Armed Police Forces, Beijing, 100039, China.
⁶ Department of Radiology, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, 100853, China.

PMID: 29066071
DOI: 10.1016/j.pedneo.2017.10.003

Abstract

Background: Very few studies have been made to investigate functional activity changes in occult spastic diplegic cerebral palsy (SDCP). The purpose of this study was to analyze whole-brain resting state regional brain activity and functional connectivity (FC) changes in patients with SDCP.

Methods: We examined 12 occult SDCP and 14 healthy control subjects using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. The data were analyzed using Resting-State fMRI Data Analysis Toolkit (REST) software. The regional homogeneity (ReHo), amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF), and whole brain FC of the motor cortex and thalamus were analyzed and compared between the occult SDCP and control groups.

Results: Compared with the control group, the occult SDCP group showed decreased ReHo regions, including the bilateral frontal, parietal, and temporal lobes, the cerebellum, right cingulate gyrus, and right lenticular nucleus, whereas an increased ReHo value was observed in the left precuneus, calcarine, fusiform gyrus, and right precuneus. Compared with the control group, no significant differences in ALFF were noted in the occult SDCP group. With the motor cortex as the region of interest, the occult SDCP group showed decreased connectivity regions in the bilateral fusiform and lingual gyrus, but increased connectivity regions in the contralateral precentral and postcentral gyrus, supplementary motor area, and the ipsilateral postcentral gyrus. With the thalamus being regarded as the region of interest, the occult SDCP group showed decreased connectivity regions in the bilateral basal ganglia, cingulate, and prefrontal cortex, but increased connectivity regions in the bilateral precentral gyrus, the contralateral cerebellum, and inferior temporal gyrus.

Conclusions: Resting-state regional brain activities and FC changes in the patients with occult SDCP exhibited a special distribution pattern, which is consistent with the pathology of the disease.

Keywords: cerebral palsy; functional connectivity; magnetic resonance imaging; regional homogeneity; resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging.

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Brain / physiopathology*
Cerebral Palsy / physiopathology*
Child
Child, Preschool
Female
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging / methods
Male

Supplementary concepts

Cerebral palsy, spastic, diplegic