Altered Brain Activity in Strabismic Amblyopic Children as Determined by Regional Homogeneity: A Resting-State Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study.

Objective: Earlier research has determined that amblyopia or strabismus may cause remarkable brain anatomical and functional variations. Nonetheless, thus far, the spontaneous changes in brain activity in children with strabismus amblyopia (SA) remain unclear. The purpose of this study was to determine the association between abnormal brain activity in children with SA and its behavioral manifestations. Patients and Methods: ?A total of 24 children with SA (10 male and 14 female children) as well as 24 healthy controls (HCs), including 10 male and 14 female children were closely matched in sex and age, and examined using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The regional homogeneity (ReHo) technique was applied to evaluate spontaneous cerebral activity variations in children with SA and HCs. Moreover, associations between altered ReHo values in distinct cerebral areas and the degree of strabismus were assessed using Pearson correlation analysis. Results: Remarkably increased ReHo values were observed in the right lingual, right superior frontal medial, bilateral superior parietal, and right inferior parietal gyri of children with SA compared with HCs. In contrast, mean ReHo values in children with SA were lower in the right cerebellum, left superior frontal gyrus, and left putamen nucleus. Furthermore, esotropia showed a positive correlation with ReHo values of the left putamen. Conclusion: The anomalous spontaneous activity changes in several brain areas that are caused by SA may indicate neuropathologic mechanisms of visual deficits and oculomotor disorders in children with SA.

Fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation in patients with neovascular glaucoma: a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging study.

BACKGROUND: Neovascular glaucoma (NVG) is a secondary refractory disease with a poor prognosis, and there are few advanced studies on its pathogenesis and treatment. In this research, the fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (fALFF) technology was used in resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI) to investigate intrinsic neuron activity in the patient's brain with NVG. METHODS: Sixteen patients with NVG (eight males and eight females) and 16 healthy controls (HCs) of similar age and sex were included. All patients and controls received rsfMRI scans, and the differences between the two groups in fALFF values were compared by independent sample t-test. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to compare fALFF values in the brain regions of NVG patients and HCs and assess accuracy. Finally, Pearson linear correlation analysis assessed the correlation between fALFF signals in brain regions and the clinical evaluation indicators of patients with NVG. RESULTS: In patients with NVG, fALFF signal values in the right Rolandic operculum, left anterior cingulate and paracingulate gyri, and right caudate were significantly decreased. In contrast, fALFF signal values in the left precuneus were significantly higher than those recorded in the HCs. Analysis of the ROC curve for each brain region showed that the area under the ROC curve of NVG patients was large (close to 1), and the accuracy was good. In the NVG group, the hospital anxiety and depression scale (r=-0.952, P<0.001) and left best-corrected visual acuity (r=-0.802, P<0.001) had a negative linear correlation with the fALFF signal value of the right Rolandic operculum. The hospital anxiety and depression scale had a negative linear correlation with the fALFF signal value of the right caudate (r=-0.948, P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: NVG patients showed dysfunction in several brain regions. These findings may assist in revealing the underlying neural mechanism of brain activity associated with NVG.

Interhemispheric Functional Connectivity Alterations in Diabetic Optic Neuropathy: A Resting-State Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study.

PURPOSE: Previous research suggests that diabetic optic neuropathy (DON) can cause marked anatomical and functional variations in the brain, but to date altered functional synchronization between two functional hemispheres remains uncharacterized in DON patients. Voxel mirrored homotopic connectivity (VMHC) is a voxel-based method to evaluate the synchronism between two mirrored hemispheric by determining the functional connectivity between each voxel in one hemisphere and its counterpart. In this study, we aim to assess abnormal changes in interhemispheric functional connectivity in DON patients via the VMHC method. METHODS: The study included 28 adult DON patients (12 male, 16 female) and 28 healthy controls (12 male, 16 female) who were closely matched for sex and age. Participants were examined using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. The VMHC method was applied to investigate the abnormal state in bilateral hemispheres in DON patients and the same regions in healthy controls, as well as the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to evaluate characteristics. Associations between altered VMHC values in distinct cerebral regions and clinical features were assessed via correlational analysis. RESULTS: Markedly lower VMHC values were evident in the right temporal inferior, the left temporal inferior, the right mid-cingulum, the left mid-cingulum, the right supplementary motor region, and the left supplementary motor region in DON patients compared with healthy controls. ROC curve analysis suggested that the application of VMHC is reliable for the diagnosis of DON. CONCLUSION: Anomalous interhemispheric functional connectivity in specific brain areas caused by DON may indicate neuropathologic mechanisms of vision loss and blurry vision in patients with DON.

CYFRA21-1/TG ratio as an accurate risk factor to predict eye metastasis in nasopharyngeal carcinoma: A STROBE-compliant article.

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) has a distinctive geographical distribution in China, especially southern China. There are several risk factors for NPC, such as Epstein-Barr virus, genetics, and environmental exposures. Although the incidence of eye metastasis (EM) is lower than metastasis in other body parts, it often indicates poor prognosis.We assessed several serum biomarkers for their ability to predict EM in NPC. Patients with NPC were selected (n = 963), and were separated into two groups, EM and no eye metastasis. Ten factors were analyzed in both groups including triglyceride (TG), high-density lipoprotein, low-density lipoprotein, alkaline phosphatase, alpha fetoprotein, carbohydrate antigen-199, cancer antigen-153, apolipoproteins AI, apolipoprotein B, and cytokeratin fragment 19 (CYFRA21-1). Independent t tests, binary logistic regression, and receiver operating characteristic curves were used to assess the data.The EM group had significantly higher CYFRA21-1 and lower TG compared with the no eye metastasis group. Areas under the curve for CYFRA21-1, TG and CYFRA21-1/TG were 0.966, 0.771, and 0.976, respectively. The corresponding cut-off values were 12.12 ng/ml, 0.41 mmol/L, and 13.5. The sensitivity and specificity of CYFRA21-1/TG were 100% and 92.2%, respectively.The increased ratio of CYFRA21-1 to TG can be an accurate method to detect EM in patients with NPC.