Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study Of Dynamic Brain Activity Changes In Asthmatic Patients Based On Dynamic Low-frequency Amplitude Technique

Purpose:Growing evidence demonstrate that asthma patients have a high risk of cognitive decline and exhibit abnormal brain activity and asthma comorbid anxiety combined with depression has long gained attention.The purpose of the study was to assess temporal variability of local brain activity in patients with asthma using d ALFF method,to further understand the neuroimaging changes and brain mechanism changes in bronchial asthma patients and to provide a reliable theoretical basis for early diagnosis and effective intervention.Materials and methods:In this study,thirty-one patients with bronchial asthma and thirty-one healthy controls(HCs)were enrolled and signed relevant informed consent.Full-brain static functional magnetic resonance imaging(rs‐f MRI)scans for all subjects,calculated dynamic d ALFF values for all subjects using sliding window methods,and conducted two sample t tests of standardized d ALFF through the SPM12 toolkit to analyze dynamic intrinsic brain activity differences between the asthma and HC groups.Results:1.In the present study,31 patients with bronchial asthma and healthy controls31 patients,there was no significant variation in age,sex,education and body mass index(P> 0.05).2.Compared with healthy controls,patients with bronchial asthma exhibited increased d ALFF values in the left Rolandic Operculum,right insula,right superior occipital gyrus,right inferior occipital gyrus,left inferior parietal gyrus,right precentral gyrus,left inferior temporal gyrus and the left Cerebellum＿7b as well as decreased d ALFF values in the right cerebellum Crus2,left thalamus,left lingual gyrus and the right cuneu.It can be found that patients with bronchial asthma have abnormal dynamic brain activity changes in the corresponding brain regions above.3.According to receiver operating curve(ROC)analysis,the d ALLF values of the precentral gyrus is the best value to distinguish between bronchial asthma and health subjects with high sensitivity and specificity.In addition,the temporal properties of dynamic low-frequency amplitude patterns between asthma groups and healthy control groups,the transfer matrices of different states were extracted by K-means cluster analysis,and all subjects exhibited five different states.Conclusion:Dynamic low-frequency amplitude changes in different brain regions of patient with bronchial asthma may be involved in the pathophysiological process of bronchial asthma,and the abnormal activity of some brain regions involved in cognitive and emotion-related functions.It may provide some useful information for explaining the clinical phenomena of asthma patients with varying degrees of cognitive dysfunction and empathic depression.