Brain Functional Activity Changes In Patients With Comitant Exotropia

Purpose:Use dynamic amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation method to explore the dynamic time-varying changes of cranial nerve activity in CE patients.Methods:A total of thirty-six CE patients(25 males and 11 females)and thirty-six well-matched healthy control volunteers join the study.All subjects were given an eye exam and associated general examination.Both groups were subjected to MRI scans for 8 minutes in a resting state using a 3-tesla MRI scanner.Data processing and analysis software is used to process images and obtain d ALFF values.The two-sample t-test was used to compare the two group differences in the d ALFF maps.The receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curves and the corresponding area under the curve(AUC)were computed to evaluate d ALFF values as accuracy of potential diagnostic indicators.Adopt dynamic amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation(d ALFF),which combines amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation(ALFF)with the sliding window method was used to assess the dynamic cranial nerve activity changes in patients with CE.Results:There were no statistically significant differences between the CE and HC groups in gender(P>0.999)、age(P=0.812)、 handedness(P>0.999)、right eye best correct visual acuity(P=0.876)、left eye best correct visual acuity(P=0.670)、right eye intraocular pressure(P=0.823)、 left eye intraocular pressure(P=0.834)、 eye movement(P>0.999);Compared with HCs,CE patients showed significantly decreased d ALFF values in the right superior parietal lobule(SPL)and right precuneus(Pre CUN);The d ALFF maps showed an accuracy of 48.61% and area under curve of 0.54 for distinguishing the CE patients from HCs.Conclusion:Patients with CE showed altered dynamic neural activity changes in the right SPL and right Pre CUN,which might indicate the neuropathological mechanism of stereoscopic dysfunction in patients with CE.