Abnormal large-scale structural rich club organization in Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy

NeuroImage: Clinical

Meng Liang¹  Ling Wang²  Qin Tian²  Dapeng Shi³  Hao Ding³  Wen Qin⁴  Ke Fan⁴  Jiahui Zhang⁴  Zhihua Sun⁵ 

[1] School of Medical Imaging, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin 300070, China;Tianjin Key Lab of Functional Imaging, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin 300052, China;Department of Medical Imaging, Henan Provincial People's Hospital, Zhengzhou 450003, China;;Department of Radiology &Henan Eye Institute, Henan Eye Hospital, Zhengzhou University People's Hospital, Henan Provincial People's Hospital, Zhengzhou 450003, China;

关键词: Leber’s hereditary optic neuropathy;    Structural network;    Rich club;    Diffusion tensor imaging;    Duration;    Retinal nerve fiber layer;   

DOI  :  

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the large-scale structural rich club organization was abnormal in patients with Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), and the associations among disrupted brain structural connectivity, disease duration, and neuro-ophthalmological impairment. Methods: Nineteen acute, 34 chronic LHON patients, and 36 healthy controls (HC) underwent DTI and neuro-ophthalmological measurements. The brain structural network and rich club organization were constructed based on deterministic fiber tracking at the individual level. Then intergroup differences among the acute, chronic LHON patients and healthy controls (HC) in three types of structural connections, including rich club, feeder, and local ones, were compared. Network-based Statistics (NBS) was also used to test the intergroup connectivity differences for each fiber. Several linear and nonlinear curve fit models were applied to explore the associations among large-scale brain structural connectivity, disease duration, and neuro-ophthalmological metrics. Results: Compared to the HC, both the acute and chronic LHON patients had consistently significantly lower fractional anisotropy (FA) and higher radial diffusion (RD) for feeder connections (p < 0.05, FDR correction). Acute LHON patients had significantly lower FA and higher RD for local connections (p < 0.05, FDR correction). There was no significant difference in large-scale brain structural connectivity between acute and chronic LHON (p > 0.05, FDR correction). NBS also identified reduced FA of three feeder connections and five local ones linking visual, auditory, and basal ganglia areas in LHON patients (p < 0.05, FDR correction). No structural connections showed linear or nonlinear association with either disease duration or neuro-ophthalmological indicators (p > 0.05, FDR correction). A significant negative correlation was shown between the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness and disease duration (p < 0.05, FDR correction). Conclusions: Abnormal rich club organization of the structural network was identified in both the acute and chronic LHON. Furthermore, our findings suggest the coexistence of both primary and secondary connectivity damage in the LHON.

【 授权许可】

Unknown