Xin Huang1, Sheng Zhou2, Ting Su3, Lei Ye1, Pei-Wen Zhu1, Wen-Qing Shi1, You-Lan Min1, Qing Yuan1, Qi-Chen Yang3, Fu-Qing Zhou4, Yi Shao5. 1. Department of Ophthalmology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang 330006, Jiangxi, People's Republic of China. 2. The State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510060, People's Republic of China. 3. Eye Institute of Xiamen University, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Xiamen 361102, Fujian Province, China. 4. Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, DongHu District, Nanchang 330006, Jiangxi, People's Republic of China. Electronic address: Fq.chou@yahoo.com. 5. The State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510060, People's Republic of China. Electronic address: freebee99@163.com.
Abstract
PURPOSE: It has been shown in many previous studies that there were significant changes of the brain anatomy and function in strabismus. However, the significance of the alterations of resting cerebral blood flow (CBF) in comitant exophoria (CE) remains obscure. Arterial spin labeling (ASL) MRI, which is a noninvasive method, could be applied to detect the cerebral blood flow quantitatively. Our study aimed to compare the resting CBF between the comitant exophoria and health controls using pseudo-continuous arterial spin labeling (pCASL) perfusion MRI method. METHODS: 32 patients (25 males and 7 females) with CE (study group), and 32 (25 males and 7 females) healthy individuals with matched age and sex status (control group) underwent a whole-brain pCASL magnetic resonance (MR) examination at the resting state. The resting CBF were voxel-wise compared between the two groups using an analysis of variance designed in a statistical parametric mapping program. The CE patients were distinguishable from the healthy controls (HCs) by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. RESULTS: Compared with the control group, the CE group showed significantly increased resting CBF values in the right parahippocampal regions, bilateral medial frontal gyrus/anterior cingulate cortex, left inferior frontal gyrus, right inferior frontal gyrus, left superior frontal gyrus, bilateral medial cingulate cortex, right middle frontal gyrus, and right paracentral lobule. CONCLUSION: Comitant exophoria showed increased resting CBF in eye movement-related brain areas including supplementary eye field, cingulate eye field and frontal eye field, which could be an explanation of the brain function compensation for the ocular motility disorders in the CE patients.
PURPOSE: It has been shown in many previous studies that there were significant changes of the brain anatomy and function in strabismus. However, the significance of the alterations of resting cerebral blood flow (CBF) in comitant exophoria (CE) remains obscure. Arterial spin labeling (ASL) MRI, which is a noninvasive method, could be applied to detect the cerebral blood flow quantitatively. Our study aimed to compare the resting CBF between the comitant exophoria and health controls using pseudo-continuous arterial spin labeling (pCASL) perfusion MRI method. METHODS: 32 patients (25 males and 7 females) with CE (study group), and 32 (25 males and 7 females) healthy individuals with matched age and sex status (control group) underwent a whole-brain pCASL magnetic resonance (MR) examination at the resting state. The resting CBF were voxel-wise compared between the two groups using an analysis of variance designed in a statistical parametric mapping program. The CE patients were distinguishable from the healthy controls (HCs) by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. RESULTS: Compared with the control group, the CE group showed significantly increased resting CBF values in the right parahippocampal regions, bilateral medial frontal gyrus/anterior cingulate cortex, left inferior frontal gyrus, right inferior frontal gyrus, left superior frontal gyrus, bilateral medial cingulate cortex, right middle frontal gyrus, and right paracentral lobule. CONCLUSION: Comitant exophoria showed increased resting CBF in eye movement-related brain areas including supplementary eye field, cingulate eye field and frontal eye field, which could be an explanation of the brain function compensation for the ocular motility disorders in the CE patients.