• Traumatic axonal injury is associated with decreased interhemispheric connectivity • Traumatic axonal injury couples with widely disrupted functional connectivity • These alterations support the default, salience, integrative, and executive functions.
BackgroundThe results of previous studies have indicated that pain-associated diseases can result in marked functional and anatomical alterations in the brain. However, differences in spontaneous brain activity occurring in toothache (TA) patients remain unclear.ObjectiveThis study investigated intrinsic brain activity changes in TA subjects using the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) technique.MethodsA total of 18 patients with TA (eight males, and 10 females) and 18 healthy controls (HCs) who were matched for gender, age, and educational status were enrolled. Resting-state functional MRI was used to examine the participants. Spontaneous cerebral activity variations were investigated using the ALFF technique. The mean ALFF values of the TA patients and the HCs were classified using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. The correlations between ALFF signals of distinct regions of the cerebrum and the clinical manifestations of the TA patients were evaluated using Pearson’s correlation analysis.ResultsCompared with HCs, TA patients showed notably higher ALFF in the left postcentral gyrus, right paracentral lobule, right lingual gyrus, right inferior occipital gyrus, left fusiform gyrus, and right superior occipital gyrus. ROC curve analysis of each brain region showed that the accuracy area under the curve was excellent. In the TA group, the visual analog scale of the left side was positively correlated with the ALFF signal values of the right paracentral lobule (r=0.639, P=0.025).ConclusionMultiple brain regions, including pain- and vision-related areas, exhibited aberrant intrinsic brain activity patterns, which may help to explain the underlying neural mechanisms in TA.
Background
Pediatric COVID-19 is relatively mild and may vary from that in adults. This study was to investigate the epidemic, clinical, and imaging features of pediatric COVID-19 pneumonia for early diagnosis and treatment.
Methods
Forty-one children infected with COVID-19 were analyzed in the epidemic, clinical and imaging data.
Results
Among 30 children with mild COVID-19, seven had no symptoms, fifteen had low or mediate fever, and eight presented with cough, nasal congestion, diarrhea, headache, or fatigue. Among eleven children with moderate COVID-19, nine presented with low or mediate fever, accompanied with cough and runny nose, and two had no symptoms. Significantly (P < 0.05) more children had a greater rate of cough in moderate than in mild COVID-19. Thirty children with mild COVID-19 were negative in pulmonary CT imaging, whereas eleven children with moderate COVID-19 had pulmonary lesions, including ground glass opacity in ten (90.9%), patches of high density in six (54.5%), consolidation in three (27.3%), and enlarged bronchovascular bundles in seven (63.6%). The lesions were distributed along the bronchus in five patients (45.5%). The lymph nodes were enlarged in the pulmonary hilum in two patients (18.2%). The lesions were presented in the right upper lobe in two patients (18.1%), right middle lobe in one (9.1%), right lower lobe in six (54.5%), left upper lobe in five (45.5%), and left lower lobe in eight (72.7%).
Conclusions
Children with COVID-19 have mild or moderate clinical and imaging presentations. A better understanding of the clinical and CT imaging helps ascertaining those with negative nucleic acid and reducing misdiagnosis rate for those with atypical and concealed symptoms.
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