Altered brain spontaneous activity in patients with cerebral small vessel disease using the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation of different frequency bands.

Background: Previous studies showed that cerebral small vessel disease (cSVD) is a leading cause of cognitive decline in elderly people and the development of Alzheimer's disease. Although brain structural changes of cSVD have been documented well, it remains unclear about the properties of brain intrinsic spontaneous activity in patients with cSVD. Methods: We collected resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI) and T1-weighted 3D high-resolution brain structural images from 41 cSVD patients and 32 healthy controls (HC). By estimating the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) under three different frequency bands (typical band: 0.01-0.1 Hz; slow-4: 0.027-0.073 Hz; and slow-5: 0.01-0.027 Hz) in the whole-brain, we analyzed band-specific ALFF differences between the cSVD patients and controls. Results: The cSVD patients showed uniformly lower ALFF than the healthy controls in the typical and slow-4 bands (pFWE < 0.05). In the typical band, cSVD patients showed lower ALFF involving voxels of the fusiform, hippocampus, inferior occipital cortex, middle occipital cortex, insula, inferior frontal cortex, rolandic operculum, and cerebellum compared with the controls. In the slow-4 band, cSVD patients showed lower ALFF involving voxels of the cerebellum, hippocampus, occipital, and fusiform compared with the controls. However, there is no significant between-group difference of ALFF in the slow-5 band. Moreover, we found significant "group × frequency" interactions in the left precuneus. Conclusion: Our results suggested that brain intrinsic spontaneous activity of cSVD patients was abnormal and showed a frequency-specific characteristic. The ALFF in the slow-4 band may be more sensitive to detecting a malfunction in cSVD patients.

Increased low frequency fluctuation in the brain after acupuncture treatment in CSVDCI patients: A randomized control trial study.

Background: Cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) is one of two cognition-impairing diseases. Acupuncture (Acu) is a flexible treatment with few adverse effects and is thus widely used to treat neurological problems. Methods: We recruited a total of 60 patients and assigned them to two groups (n = 30 each group). During the study, some participants were excluded by quality control, and a total of 44 subjects (25 Acu and 19 controls) were completed to investigate the therapeutic efficacy of acupuncture on CSVD cognitive impairment (CSVDCI). The following demographic and clinical variables were compared between the two groups: gender, age, education, smoking, alcohol, Montreal cognitive assessment (MoCA), symbol digit modalities test (SDMT), verbal fluency test (VFT), digit span task (DST), Boston naming test (BNT) scores, and amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) under the typical band (0.01-0.08 Hz). Mixed effect analysis was utilized to test for differences between the two groups before and after the treatment. Results: Following acupuncture treatment, the Acu group scored higher on MoCA, SDMT, VFT, DST, and BNT compared to controls (P < 0.05). The brain regions showing substantially greater ALFF values in the Acu group were the right inferior temporal gyrus, left middle occipital gyrus, left superior occipital gyrus, left insula, bilateral postcentral gyrus, right superior parietal gyrus, right cerebellum, right precuneus, and right precentral gyrus (P < 0.005, no correction). The ALFF values in the right inferior temporal gyrus (P = 0.027), left middle occipital gyrus (P = 0.005), left superior occipital gyrus (P = 0.011), and right superior parietal gyrus (P = 0.043) were positively associated with MoCA. Conclusion: We found that acupuncture modulates the functional activity of temporal, occipital, and parietal regions of the brain in CSVDCI patients.