Abstract
Coronary heart disease (CHD) confers a high risk of cognitive and mental impairments in patients. This study aimed to explore the association of CHD with functional connectivity and topological properties of brain networks. A total of 27 patients with CHD and 44 healthy controls (HCs) participated in this study and underwent a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) scan. Intra- and internetwork functional connectivity alterations were explored using independent component analysis in CHD patients. Furthermore, graph theoretical analysis was adopted to assess abnormalities in small-world properties and network efficiency metrics of brain networks. Compared to HCs, CHD patients exhibited increased functional connectivity between the posterior default mode network and posterior visual network, as well as decreased functional connectivity between the left frontoparietal network and auditory network. In terms of graph theoretical analysis, small-world network topology was identified in both CHD patients and HCs. Furthermore, the nodal local efficiency of the left putamen was significantly decreased in CHD patients compared to HCs. This study revealed alterations in brain functional connectivity and topological properties in CHD patients, shedding light on the potential neurological mechanism underlying cognitive and mental impairments in these patients and suggesting unexplored connections between CHD and higher order cognitive processing.
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The authors would like to thank all participants in this study.
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This work was supported by grants from the Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province, China (Grant No. J01535).
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Si-Min Lin designed the study, analyzed the data and wrote the original manuscript. Yi Han, Shao-Yin Duan and Shu-Jia Guo undertook the statistical analysis. Qian-Ni Du, Nai-Ming Wu, Ting Xie and collected the clinical information and imaging data of healthy controls. Zhi-Shang Chen, Xiao-Yan Chen collected the clinical information and imaging data of patients. Heng-Yu Zhao, Yi Han and Pu-Yeh Wu revised the manuscript and supervised the research. All authors approved the final manuscript.
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Lin, S., Wu, P., Duan, S. et al. Altered functional brain networks in coronary heart disease: independent component analysis and graph theoretical analysis. Brain Struct Funct 229, 133–142 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-023-02724-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-023-02724-w