Quantitatively Analyzing The Activation Volume And Intensity Of Primary Motor Area In Acute Stroke Patients With Bold-fMRI

Objective： Through quantitatively analyzing the changes of theactivation volume and intensity of the primary motor area (M1) afterhandgrip exercise test in the normal volunteers and hemiplegic strokepatients using blood oxygen level dependent functional magnetic resonanceimaging (BOLD-fMRI), the objective of this study is to explore the valueof BOLD-fMRI in hemiplegic stroke patients.Methods：Twenty normal volunteers (control group) and sixteen acutestroke hemiplegic patients (hemiplegia group) were performed BOLD-fMRI.The functional images were analyzed by statistical parametric mapping(SPM, Version5.0) software and the activation volume and intensity of M1were quantitatively analyzed by Statistical Program for Social Sciences(SPSS for Windows, Version19.0). The MNI coordinates and theanatomical location of the peak intensity could be obtained by xjView8software.Results：Because of the realignment result, two normal subjects andthree hemiplegia group subjects were excluded from the study. Sporadic activation could be identified after handgrip exercise test in the two groups,and the activation of contralateral M1was relatively obvious, althoughthere were no activation after handgrip exercise test on affected side in2hemiplegia group subjects. There were no significant differences on theactivation volume and intensity between bilateral M1in control group(P>0.05). There were significant differences on the activation volume andintensity between the affected side and the contralateral side in hemiplegiagroup (P<0.05). No significant differences were found between the normalside of hemiplegia group and the same side of the control group after thehandgrip exercise test (P>0.05). The activation volume of M1on theaffected in the hemiplegia group was lower than that in the control group(P<0.05), but there was no significant differences of the activation intensityof M1on the affected side between the control group and the hemiplegiagroup (P>0.05).Conclusion： BOLD-fMRI can precisely locate and quantitativelyanalyze the activation of volume and intensity in the regions of interest. Itprovides an effective method to value the movement function in cerebralinfarction patients.