克罗恩病患者左脑岛及右后顶叶皮层厚度与功能连接异常OA北大核心CSTPCD

Objective: To investigate the alterations in brain structure and function among patients with Crohn's disease (CD) and their correlation with clinical indicators. Materials and Methods: Brain structural and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data, along with clinical indicator data, were collected from 20 CD patients and 21 healthy controls. Based on the Schaefer atlas, the left and right hemispheres were divided into 100 brain regions, and the differences in cortical thickness between the two groups were examined. Functional connectivity (FC) was calculated among the brain regions showing significant structural group difference, and the differences in FC between the two groups were compared. The associations between clinical indicators [Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) score, Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS) score, CD activity index and disease duration] and abnormal cortical thickness & FC were measured using Pearson correlation coefficient in CD group. Results: Compared to the healthy control group, CD patients exhibited a decrease in cortical thickness in the left insula (P=0.002, FDR correction) and right posterior parietal cortex (P=0.031, FDR correction). The FC between the left insula and right posterior parietal cortex was significantly reduced in CD group (P=0.025). Furthermore, there was a significant negative correlation between cortical thickness of left insula and SDS score among CD patients (r=-0.61, P=0.007). Conclusions: The left insular and right posterior parietal cortex structure and FC are damaged in CD patients compared with normal controls. The thickness of left insular cortex is associated with the increase of depression score, which provides new clues for understanding the neural mechanism of CD.