Regional homogeneity alterations in multifrequency bands in patients with extracranial multi-organ tuberculosis: a prospective cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: This study aimed to clarify the spontaneous neural activity in the conventional frequency band (0.01−0.08 Hz) and 2 subfrequency bands (slow-4: 0.027–0.073 Hz; slow-5: 0.01–0.027 Hz) in patients with extracranial multi-organ tuberculosis (EMTB) through regional homogeneity (ReHo) analysis. Methods: In all, 32 patients with EMTB and 31 healthy controls (HCs) were assessed by resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) scans to clarify the abnormal spontaneous neural activity through ReHo analysis in the conventional frequency band and 2 subfrequency bands. Results: Compared with the HCs, the patients with EMTB exhibited decreased ReHo in the left postcentral gyrus [t= –4.79; 95% confidence interval (CI): –0.79 to –0.31] and the left superior cerebellum (t= –4.45; 95% CI: –0.54 to –0.21) in the conventional band. Conversely, increased ReHo was observed in the right middle occipital gyrus (t=3.94; 95% CI: 0.18–0.53). In the slow-4 band, patients with EMTB only exhibited decreased ReHo in the superior cerebellum (t= –4.69; 95% CI: –0.54 to –0.22); meanwhile, in the slow-5 band, these patients exhibited decreased ReHo in the right postcentral gyrus (t= –3.76; 95% CI: –0.74 to –0.21) and the left superior cerebellum (t= –5.20, 95% CI: –0.72 to –0.31). After Bonferroni correction, no significant correlation was observed between the ReHo values in clusters showing significant between-group differences and cognitive test scores. Conclusions: ReHo showed abnormal synchronous neural activity in patients with EMTB in different frequency bands, which provides a novel understanding of the pathological mechanism of EMTB.