Objective. This study is aimed at exploring the spontaneous brain activity changes by measuring the fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (fALFF) and their relationship with clinical characteristics in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD). Methods. Coronary heart disease patients ( n = 25 ) and age, gender, and education level-matched control subjects (controls, n = 35 ) were included. The grey matter volume (GMV) and fALFF values were calculated to assess the difference in brain structure and function between the two groups, respectively. Correlation analyses between the fALFF values and clinical characteristics were further assessed in CHD patients. In addition, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were conducted to access the diagnostic ability of the fALFF method. Results. There was no significant difference in GMV between the CHD and control groups. Compared with the control group, patients with CHD showed significantly decreased fALFF in the left precentral/postcentral gyrus and increased fALFF in the right inferior cerebellum. Patients with a history of myocardial infarction (MI) showed significantly decreased fALFF values of the right inferior cerebellum than patients without MI. There was no significant correlation between the fALFF values in specific brain regions and disease duration. Furthermore, the ROC curves of abnormal brain regions showed the perfect accuracy of the fALFF value in distinguishing between CHD patients and controls. Conclusion. CHD demonstrated aberrant neural activity in specific brain regions mainly related to sensorimotor networks and pain processing, which may contribute to understanding the underlying neurological mechanism of CHD.

BackgroundChronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) poses a risk for developing emotional and cognitive disorders. However, the neural evidence for this association is largely unclear. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) analysis can demonstrate abnormal brain activity and functional connectivity and contribute to explaining the potential pathophysiology of CRS-related mood and cognitive alterations.MethodsChronic rhinosinusitis patients (CRS, n = 26) and gender- and age-matched healthy control subjects (HCs, n = 38) underwent resting-state functional MRI scanning. The amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) was calculated to observe the intrinsic brain activity. The brain region with altered ALFF was further selected as the seed for functional connectivity (FC) analysis. Correlation analysis was performed between the ALFF/FC and clinical parameters in CRS patients.ResultsCompared with HCs, CRS patients exhibited significantly increased ALFF in the left orbital superior frontal cortex and reduced connectivity in the right precuneus using the orbital superior frontal cortex as the seed region. The magnitude of the orbital superior frontal cortex increased with inflammation severity. In addition, ALFF values in the orbital superior frontal cortex were positively correlated with the hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS) scores. The ROC curves of altered brain regions indicated great accuracy in distinguishing between CRS patients and HCs.ConclusionIn this study, patients with CRS showed increased neural activity in the orbital superior frontal cortex, a critical region in emotional regulation, and this region also indicated hypoconnectivity to the precuneus with a central role in modulating cognition. This study provided preliminary insights into the potential neural mechanism related to mood and cognitive dysfunctions in CRS patients.

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Coronary heart disease is an urgent, rapidly-developing disease with high disability and mortality. Previous studies indicated that CHD patients exhibited an increased risk of mild cognitive and emotional dysfunction. Here we collected rs-fMRI data to assess global brain activity in CHD patients and controls by measuring fALFF. We demonstrated that CHD patients occur abnormal brain activity in left precentral/postcentral gyrus and right inferior cerebellum, which is mainly related to sensorimotor network and pain processing. Spontaneous brain activity abnormalities may contribute to understanding underlying neurological mechanisms of CHD.