Altered regional homogeneity in patients with unilateral acute open globe injury: a resting-state functional MRI study

Abstract

Xin Huang,1,2,* Hai-Jun Li,3,* Lei Ye,1 Ying Zhang,1 Rong Wei,1 Yu-Lin Zhong,1 De-Chang Peng,3 Yi Shao1 1Department of Ophthalmology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang, 2Department of Ophthalmology, The First People’s Hospital of Jiujiang City, Jiujiang, 3Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang, Jiangxi, People’s Republic of China *These authors contributed equally to this work Objective: To investigate the underlying regional homogeneity (ReHo) brain activity changes in patients with unilateral acute open-globe injury (OGI) and their relationship with their clinical features. Patients and methods: In total, 18 patients with acute OGI (16 males and two females) and 18 healthy controls (HCs; 16 males and two females) closely matched in age, sex, and education status participated in the study. Each subject underwent a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scan. The ReHo method was used to assess local features of spontaneous brain activity. Receiver–operating characteristic curve was used to distinguish OGIs from HCs. The nonparametric statistical analysis was used to explore the relationship between the observed mean ReHo values of the different brain areas and the behavioral performance. Results: Compared with HCs, acute OGI patients had significantly increased ReHo values in the right cerebellum posterior lobe/lingual gyrus, left superior temporal gyrus/inferior frontal gyrus, left inferior frontal gyrus, left posterior cingulate cortex/precuneus, and left precentral operculum. However, there was no relationship between the observed mean ReHo values of the different brain areas and the behavioral performance. Conclusion: Acute OGI may cause dysfunction in many brain regions, which may reflect the underlying pathologic mechanisms of acute vision loss in OGI patients. Keywords: open-globe injury, ReHo, functional magnetic resonance imaging, resting state