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Brain functional networks: correlation analysis with clinical indexes in patients with diabetic retinopathy

  • Functional Neuroradiology
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Abstract

Purpose

The relationship between parameters of brain functional networks and clinical indexes is unclear so far in patients with diabetic retinopathy (DR). This paper is to investigate this.

Methods

Twenty-one patients with different grades of DR and 21 age- and sex-matched healthy controls were enrolled from August 2012 to September 2014. The clinical indexes recorded included DR grade, duration of diabetes, HbA1c, diabetic foot screen, fasting plasma glucose, insulin, Homa-β, Homa-IR, insulin sensitive index (ISI), Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), and patient sex and age. Subjects were scanned using 3-T MR with blood-oxygen-level-dependent and 3D–FSPGR sequences. MR data was analyzed via preprocessing and functional network construction, and quantified indexes of network (clustering coefficient, characteristic path length, global efficiency, degree distribution, and small worldness) were evaluated. Statistics consisted of ANOVA and correlation.

Results

There were significant differences between patients and controls among clustering coefficient, characteristic path length, degree distribution, and small worldness parameters (P < 0.05). MMSE scores negatively correlated with characteristic path length, and Hb1Ac negatively correlated with small worldness. MMSE, duration of diabetes, diabetic foot screen, fasting plasma glucose, insulin, Homa-β, Homa-IR, ISI, DR grade, and patient age, except from Hb1Ac, correlated with degree distribution in certain brain areas.

Conclusion

Brain functional networks are altered, specifically in the areas of visual function and cognition, and these alterations may reflect the severity of visual weakness and cognitive decline in DR patients. Moreover, the brain networks may be affected both by long-standing and instant clinical factors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Shizi Street 188, Suzhou, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China, 215006

    Hui Dai, Yu Zhang, Su Hu, Ximing Wang, Yonggang Li & Chunhong Hu

  2. Department of Neuroradiology, LAC+USC Medical Center, 1200 North State Street, D&T 3D321, Los Angeles, CA, 90033, USA

    Lillian Lai

  3. Department of Radiology, Suzhou Kowloon Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Medical School, Wansheng Street 118, Suzhou, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China, 215028

    Hailin Shen

Authors
  1. Hui Dai
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  2. Yu Zhang
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  3. Lillian Lai
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  4. Su Hu
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  5. Ximing Wang
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  6. Yonggang Li
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  7. Chunhong Hu
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  8. Hailin Shen
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Chunhong Hu or Hailin Shen.

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Funding

This work was primarily funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant 81201079), partially funded by Medical Research Projects of the Department of Health, Jiangsu Province (Grant Q201303) and partially funded by the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Education (Grant JS-2014-197).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Dai, H., Zhang, Y., Lai, L. et al. Brain functional networks: correlation analysis with clinical indexes in patients with diabetic retinopathy. Neuroradiology 59, 1121–1131 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00234-017-1900-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00234-017-1900-5

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