Brain Functional Connectivity In Patients With Hepatic Encephalopathy Based On Resting-state FMRI

Purpose : To investigate the whole brain connectivity network associated with bilateral globus pallidus in hepatic encephalopathy(HE) patients with resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging.Methods:Twenty-one patients with previous overt HE(OHE group), 22 patients with minimal HE(MHE group) and 21 healthy controls(HC group) underwent rs-f MRI. The bilateral resting-state networks(RSNs) were characterized by using a standard seed-based whole-brain correlation method. And the statistical analysis was performed.Results:There were different functional connectivities among three groups mainly included the frontal lobe, temporal lobe, bilateral caudate nucleus and parietal lobe(all P<0.05). Compared with the HC group, the OHE group showed decreased functional connectivity in the right fusiform gyrus, right inferior occipital gyrus, left superior orbitofrontal gyrus, right middle frontal gyrus, and increased functional connectivity of bilateral caudate nucleus, triangle inferior frontal gyrus, left parahippocampal gyrus; the MHE group showed decreased functional connectivity in the bilateral middle temporal gyrus, left precentral gyrus, left medial frontal gyrus. Compared with the MHE group, the OHE group showed decreased functional connectivity of right fusiform gyrus, right precuneus, right middle temporal gyrus, right angular gyrus, and increased functional connectivity in the right inferior tempotal gyrus, bilateral caudate nucleus(all P<0.05).Conclusions : Both of OHE and MHE patients exist disrupted functional connectivity between cortex and subcortex areas. The changes of the functional connectivity may associated with cognitive dysfunction in patients with HE.