Altered regional homogeneity in epileptic patients with infantile spasm: A resting-state fMRI study

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Tan, Zhen^a | Li, Yongxin^b | Zang, Dongdong^c | Zhang, Heye^d | Zhao, Cailei^c | Jiang, Haibo^e | Chen, Yan^c | Cao, Dezhi^c | Chen, Li^c | Liao, Jianxiang^c | Chen, Qian^c | Luan, Guoming^{a; f; g; *}

Affiliations: [a] Department of Functional Neurosurgery, Sanbo Brain Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China | [b] The Institute of Clinical Anatomy, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China | [c] Shenzhen Children Hospital, Shenzhen, China | [d] Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China | [e] Department of Neurology, the Affiliated Hospital of Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China | [f] Beijing Key Laboratory in Epilepsy, Beijing, China | [g] Center of Epilepsy, Beijing Institute for Brain Disorders, Beijing, China

Correspondence: [*] Corresponding author: Guoming Luan, Department of Neurosurgery, Sanbo Brain Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100093, China. Tel.: +86 10 62856718; E-mail: luangm3@163.com.

Abstract: Infantile spasm (IS) syndrome is an age-related epileptic encephalopathy that occurs in children. The purpose of this study was to investigate regional homogeneity (ReHo) changes in IS patients. Resting-state fMRI was performed on 11 patients with IS, along with 35 age- and sex-matched healthy subjects. Group comparisons between the two groups demonstrate that the pattern of regional synchronization synchronization in IS patients is changed. Decreased ReHo values were found in default mode network, bilateral motor-related areas and left occipital gyrus of the patient group. Increased ReHo was found in regions of cingulum, cerebellum, supplementary motor area and brain deep nucleus, such as hippocampus, caudate, thalamus and insula. The significant differences might indicate that epileptic action have some injurious effects on the motor, executive and cognitive related regions. In addition, ReHo values of left precuneus and right superior frontal gyrus were associated with the epilepsy duration in the IS group. The correlation results indicate that the involvement of these regions may be related to the seizure generation. Our results suggest that IS may have an injurious effect on the brain activation. The findings may shed new light on the understanding the neural mechanism of IS epilepsy.

Keywords: Epilepsy, resting-state fMRI, regional homogeneity, infantile spasm, thalamus, DMN

DOI: 10.3233/XST-160559

Journal: Journal of X-Ray Science and Technology, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 285-295, 2016