The heterogeneity of aging brain: altered functional connectivity in default mode network in older adults during verbal fluency tests / 中华医学杂志(英文版)

<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>Successful aging (SA) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) are heterogeneous groups of aging. To explore the heterogeneity, the functional connectivity was studied in these populations.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The present study utilized functional connectivity magnetic resonance imaging (fcMRI) to investigate default mode network (DMN) in 8 healthy subjects of SA, 8 subjects of usual aging (UA), and 8 MCI patients during verbal fluency tests (VFTs). Functional connectivity (based seeds) of different groups was analyzed by using statistical test.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Compared with SA and UA groups, MCI subjects exhibited decreased functional connectivity in the DMN regions, including the inferior parietal lobule and left angular gyrus (t = 3.53, P < 0.001). Compared with UA and MCI groups, the SA elderly exhibited increased functional connectivity in the precuneus (t = 3.53, P < 0.001).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>These findings suggested that abnormalities of functional connectivity in DMN might be related with semantic memory impairment in aging. Left angular gyrus and precuneus might be the potential imaging-based biomarker for distinguishing heterogeneous process of elderly.</p>

Relationship between quality of life and liver function in patients with chronic viral hepatitis B / 中华全科医师杂志

Objective To investigate the relationship between quality of life and liver function in patients with chronic viral hepatitis B.Methods Psychological condition was investigated in 536 patients of chronic viral hepatitis B and 200 normal volunteers with self-administered 36-item short-form health survey questionnaire.These patients were divided into four groups based on their liver fuction normal,mild, moderate and severe damage,based on their serum activity of alanine aminotransferase(ALT)and serum level of bilirubin at the time of investigation.The patients with abnormal liver function at the beginning of the study would be retested when liver function recovered to normal level.Before and after comparison was made for those with abnormal liver function by Wilcoxon signed rank test.Trend test for the changes in liver function was performed by Jonckheere-Terpstra test.Results There was significant difference in physical functioning,role limitation due to physical health,bodily pain,general health perception,vitality,social functioning,role limitation due to emotional problems and mental health between patient with chronic viral hepatitis B and healthy volunteers.It was positively correlated with the degree of liver function damage. Scores of general health perception,role limitation due to physical health,role limitation due to emotional problems and vitality were relatively low in patients with chronic viral hepatitis B.Conclusions Quality of life in patients with chronic viral hepatitis B was far worse than that in healthy normal people,which related with their liver function.The more damage to liver function,the worse quality of life.Additional psychological treatment will be helpful for the patients with chronic viral hepatitis B other than drug treatment.

Deactivation of medial prefrontal and posterior cingulate cortex in anxiety disorders / 中华放射学杂志

Objective We used blood oxygenation level dependent-functional MR imaging(BOLD- fMRI)to explore the characteristics of deactivation patterns in patients with anxiety disorders and the underlying neural mechanism of this disease.Methods Ten patients and ten healthy controls participated the experiments.All subjects performed the trait portion of the State-Trait anxiety Inventory(STAI-T)prior to the fMRI scans.The subjects underwent noninvasive functional magnetic resonance imaging while listening actively to emotionally neutral words alternating with no words(experiment 1)and threat related-words alternating with emotionally neutral words(experiment2).During fMRI scanning,subjects were instructed to closely listen to each stimuli word and to silently make a judgment of the word's valence.Data were analyzed with statistical parametric mapping(SPM 99).Individual and group analysis were conducted.Results Mean STAI-T score was significantly higher for patients group than that of controls(58?8 for patients group and 33?5 for controls,t=8.3,P