Disrupted Functional Connectivity of the Anterior Cingulate Cortex in Cirrhotic Patients without Overt Hepatic Encephalopathy: A Resting State fMRI Study

摘要: Background To evaluate the changes of functional connectivity anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in patients with cirrhosis without overt hepatic encephalopathy (HE) using resting state MRI. Methodology/Principal Findings Participants included 67 cirrhotic (27 minimal (MHE) and 40 MHE (non-HE)), age- gender- matched healthy controls. rsfMRI were performed on 3 Telsa scanners. The pregenual ACC resting-state networks (RSNs) characterized by a standard seed-based whole-brain correlation method compared between Pearson analysis was RSNs venous blood ammonia levels, neuropsychological tests (number connection test type A [NCT-A] digit symbol [DST]) scores patients. All thresholds set at P<0.05, false discovery rate corrected. Compared controls, non-HE showed significantly decreased bilateral ACC, middle frontal (MFC), (MCC), superior temporal gyri (STG)/middle (MTG), thalami, putamen insula, increased precuneus left temporo-occipital lobe lingual gyri. patients, right MCC, STG/MTG putamen. This indicates predominated increasing severity HE. NCT-A negatively correlated lobe, DST positively No found levels patients. Conclusions/Significance Disrupted which further deteriorated HE cognitive dysfunction