Voxel-Mirrored Homotopic Connectivity Is Altered in Meibomian Gland Dysfunction Patients That Are Morbidly Obese

• Published in: Brain sciences Vol. 12; no. 8; p. 1078
• Main Authors: Shi, Yi-Dan, Shu, Hui-Ye, Liu, Li-Qi, Li, Shi-Qi, Liao, Xu-Lin, Pan, Yi-Cong, Su, Ting, Zhang, Li-Juan, Kang, Min, Ying, Ping, Shao, Yi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 15.08.2022; MDPI
• Subjects: Acuity; Alzheimer's disease; Body mass index; Brain; Brain mapping; Cardiovascular disease; Cerebral hemispheres; Correlation analysis; Diabetes; Diabetic retinopathy; Experiments; fMRI; functional connectivity; Functional magnetic resonance imaging; Hypertension; Independent sample; Lipids; meibomian gland dysfunction; morbid obesity; Neural networks; Neuroimaging; Normal distribution; Obesity; Patients; Software; Strabismus; voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity; Beijing China; China
• ISSN: 2076-3425; 2076-3425
• DOI: 10.3390/brainsci12081078

Purpose: To investigate the altered functional connectivity (FC) of the cerebral hemispheres in patients with morbid obesity (MO) with meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD) by voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity (VMHC). Methods: Patients and matched healthy controls (HCs) were recruited, and all subjects underwent functional resonance magnetic imaging (fMRI), and VMHC results were processed statistically to assess the differences in FC in different brain regions between the two groups. We further used ROC curves to evaluate the diagnostic value of these differences. We also used Pearson’s correlation analysis to explore the relationship between changes in VMHC values in specific brain regions, visual acuity, and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score. Conclusions: Patients with morbid obesity and MGD had abnormal FC in the cerebral hemispheres in several specific brain areas, which were mainly concentrated in pathways related to vision and perception and may correlate to some extent with the clinical presentations of the patients.