AUTHOR=Huang Xin , Wen Zhi , Qi Chen-Xing , Tong Yan , Shen Yin 

TITLE=Dynamic Changes of Amplitude of Low-Frequency Fluctuations in Patients With Diabetic Retinopathy

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Neurology

VOLUME=Volume 12 - 2021

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neurology/articles/10.3389/fneur.2021.611702

DOI=10.3389/fneur.2021.611702

ISSN=1664-2295

ABSTRACT=Abstract
Background: There is increasing evidence that diabetic retinopathy (DR) patients have a high risk of cognitive decline and exhibit abnormal brain activity. However, neuroimaging studies thus far have focused on static brain activity changes in DR patients; the characteristics of dynamic brain activity in patients with DR are poorly understood. 
Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the abnormal time-varying local brain activity in patients with DR by using the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) method combined with a sliding-window approach. 
Materials and methods: Thirty-four DR patients (18 men and 16 women) and thirty-eight healthy controls (HCs) (18 males and 20 females) closely matched in age, sex, and education underwent resting-state magnetic resonance imaging. The ALFF with sliding-window analyses method was used to compare differences in dynamic intrinsic brain activity between the two groups.
Results: Compared with HCs, DR patients exhibited increased dynamic ALFF (dALFF) variability in the right brainstem, left cerebellum_8, left cerebellum_9, and left parahippocampal gyrus. In contrast, DR patients exhibited decreased dynamic ALFF (dALFF) variability in the left middle occipital gyrus and right middle occipital gyrus (voxel-level P<0.01, Gaussian random field correction, cluster-level P<0.05). 
Conclusion: Our study highlighted that DR patients showed abnormal temporal variability of dALFF in the visual cortices, cerebellum, and parahippocampal gyrus; these findings suggest impaired visual and motor and memory function in DR individuals. Thus, abnormal dynamic spontaneous brain activity might be involved in the pathophysiology of DR.