Brain Functional Alterations in Early Stage of Coal Workers' Pneumoconiosis with Alcoholism: Insights from a resting-state fMRI investigation

Boting Xue¹Gang Cao¹Lingling Ren¹Yuxiang Zhao¹Xuecong Lv¹Yongai Li²Akifumi Hagiwara^3,4Yongbo Liu^1*Xiaowei Han⁵

• ¹Peking University lu'an Hospital, Changzhi, China
• ²Department of Radiology, Changzhi People’s Hospital, Shanxi, Changzhi, China
• ³Department of Radiology, School of Medicine, Juntendo University, Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan
• ⁴Department of Radiology, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan
• ⁵Department of Radiology, The Quzhou Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Quzhou People's Hospital, Quzhou, China

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) changes in Coal Workers' Pneumoconiosis (CWP) patients with alcoholism using Amplitude of Low-Frequency Fluctuation (ALFF) and Functional Connectivity (FC) analyses.: A total of 60 patients with stage I CWP and 30 healthy controls were prospectively enrolled. The CWP patients were further divided into drinking and non-drinking groups. Resting-state fMRI scans were performed for all three groups, and correlations between abnormal ALFF signals, FC changes, and clinical baseline data were analyzed. Results: Compared to the control group, both the CWP drinking and non-drinking groups exhibited increased ALFF signals in the left orbitofrontal cortex, left frontal pole, right intracalcarine cortex, and right precuneus cortex, as well as decreased ALFF signals in the bilateral temporal pole and left occipital fusiform gyrus. Functional connectivity analysis revealed increased connectivity from the right orbitofrontal cortex to the right pars triangularis of the inferior frontal gyrus and from the right precuneus cortex to the right lingual gyrus in both CWP groups. Conversely, decreased connectivity was observed in the left and right frontal poles. Additionally, a positive correlation was found between ALFF values in the left temporal pole and PaO2 levels in the CWP drinking group (r=0.369, p=0.038). In the CWP non-drinking group, functional connectivity between the right precuneus cortex and the right lingual gyrus showed a negative correlation with FVC (r=-0.442, p=0.027).CWP patients with alcoholism exhibit abnormal brain regions and functional connectivity associated with spontaneous neural activity changes.Significant correlations between specific brain regions and clinical indicators were identified. These findings provide a foundation for understanding neuroimaging changes in CWP patients with alcoholism through fMRI.