轻度认知障碍患者丘脑功能连接的随访研究

摘要

Objective To study the alteration of thalamus function connectivity pattern in patients with mild cognitive impairment( MCI) during a one year follow-up. Methods In the present study,neuropsychological tests and functional connectivity analysis based on resting state functionalmagneticresonanceimaging(fMRI)wereevaluatedin13MCIsubjects(age74.5±8.7years,gender8M/5F)bothatthebaselineand one year later. Then a correlation analysis was performed between the strength of functional connectivity of the identified regions and various clinical variables for evaluating the relationships between the strength of functional connectivity and the cognitive abilities of the MCI patients. Results Compared to the baseline,MCI patients showed decreased functional connectivity between the left thalamus and several regions of brain including left inferior parietal cortex,left putamen and right cerebellar posterior lobe( VIIB). Decreased functional connectivity was also detected between the right thalamus and left putamen. There were no correlations between alteration on the functional connectivity and changes of cognitive function. Conclusion Functional connectivity between the thalamus and several brain regions which were involved with high level cognition is impaired over time in the MCI patients. Our results provided useful information for research on the pathophysiological mechanism of the conversion from MCI to AD.%目的：研究静息状态下轻度认知障碍（ MCI）患者丘脑功能连接在1年的纵向研究中的变化。方法在基线和平均13.0±2.2个月的随访中，对13例MCI 患者进行静息状态下功能磁共振扫描，比较前后丘脑功能连接的差异，并分析神经心理评估结果与丘脑功能连接强度变化的关系。结果与基线时相比，MCI患者左侧下顶叶皮层、壳核及右侧小脑后叶与丘脑的功能连接减弱，然而这种改变与认知评估成绩的变化间未发现显著的相关。结论随时间进展，MCI患者丘脑与多个涉及高级认知功能脑区间的静息状态功能连接出现减弱，这一结果为研究MCI患者向阿尔茨海默病进展的脑功能病理生理改变提供了依据。