Abnormal Spontaneous Brain Activities of Limbic-Cortical Circuits in Patients With Dry Eye Disease

• Published in: Frontiers in human neuroscience Vol. 14; p. 574758
• Main Authors: Yan, Haohao, Shan, Xiaoxiao, Wei, Shubao, Liu, Feng, Li, Wenmei, Lei, Yiwu, Guo, Wenbin, Luo, Shuguang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Lausanne Frontiers Research Foundation 09.11.2020; Frontiers Media S.A
• Subjects: Age; Brain; Brain mapping; Cingulum; Circuits; Diabetic retinopathy; dry eye disease; Eye diseases; Frontal gyrus; Functional magnetic resonance imaging; Glaucoma; Human Neuroscience; Inflammation; limbic-cortical circuits; Magnetic resonance imaging; Medical imaging; Nervous system; Neuroimaging; Pain; Prefrontal cortex; regional homogeneity; resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging; Superior temporal gyrus; support vector machine; Support vector machines; Temporal cortex; Temporal gyrus; Values
• ISSN: 1662-5161; 1662-5161
• DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2020.574758

Whether brain function is altered in patients with dry eye disease (DED) remains unclear. Twenty patients with DED and twenty-three healthy controls (HCs) were scanned using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. Regional homogeneity (ReHo) and support vector machine (SVM) were used to analyze the imaging data. Relative to the HCs, the patients with DED showed significantly increased ReHo values in the left inferior occipital gyrus (IOG), left superior temporal gyrus, and right superior medial prefrontal cortex; and significantly decreased ReHo values in the right superior frontal gyrus/middle frontal gyrus and bilateral middle cingulum (MC). SVM results indicated that the combination of ReHo values in the left MC and the left IOG in distinguishing patients with DED from HCs had a sensitivity of 95.00%, a specificity of 91.30%, and an accuracy of 93.02%. The present study found that the patients with DED had abnormal ReHo values in the limbic-cortical circuits. A combination of ReHo values in the left MC and the left IOG could be applied as a potential imaging biomarker to distinguish patients with DED from HCs. The dysfunction of limbic-cortical circuits may play an important role in the pathophysiology of DED.