Study On The Changes Of Brain Network Topological Properties In Patients With Vascular Mild Cognitive Impairment Based On Graph Theory

Objective:Some characteristics of regional brain function changes have been found in patients with vascular mild cognitive impairment(VaMCI),and the topological properties of the whole brain functional network remain to be studied.Based on resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging(rs-f MRI),this study used graph theory analysis to investigate the changes of brain network topological properties in VaMCI patients from two perspectives of degree centrality(DC)based on voxel-based method and the definition of brain nodes using atlas..Methods:Twenty-six VaMCI patients and 26 healthy controls underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging and neuropsychological evaluation.After quality control,25 VaMCI patients and 24 NC patients were finally enrolled.The magnetic resonance data were preprocessed,and the voxel-based degree centrality method was used to calculate the DC value of all voxels.The AAL map was used to calculate the global network and local network properties of all subjects.Twenty-six VaMCI patients and 26 healthy controls underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging and neuropsychological evaluation.After quality control,25 VaMCI patients and 24 normal controls were finally enrolled.The voxel-based degree centrality method was used to calculate the DC values of all voxels,and the AAL map was used to calculate the global network and local network properties of all subjects.Pearson correlation analysis was used to further explore the correlation between the neuroimaging parameters of abnormal brain regions and cognitive scores.Results:1.There was no significant difference in general information,anxiety,depression and MMSE scores between the two groups.The scores of Mo CA,visuospatial and executive function,language,abstract and delayed recall were significantly lower in VaMCI group than in NC group(P<0.001).2.The DC values of the superior temporal gyrus and middle frontal gyrus in VaMCI group were lower than those in NC group P<0.01,FWE corrected).The DC values of precentral gyrus,parahippocampal gyrus and postcentral gyrus in the NC group were higher than those in the NC group(P<0.01).3.There was no significant difference in global attributes;In VaMCI group,compared with NC group,the nodal betweenness and nodal efficiency of left medial and lateral cingulate gyri,anterior cingulate gyri and lateral cingulate gyri were significantly decreased,the nodal efficiency of left supramarginal gyri was decreased,and the nodal betweenness of right orbital superior frontal gyri was significantly increased(P < 0.01).(4)Correlation analysis showed that the DC value of precentral gyrus was significantly positively correlated with MOCA score and attention score(P<0.05).The DC value of postcentral gyrus was positively correlated with MMSE score,MOCA score and executive function score(P<0.05).The node efficiency of the supramarginal gyrus was significantly positively correlated with the attention score(P<0.05).Conclusion:Voxel-based degree centrality analysis showed that there were abnormal topological properties of functional network in VaMCI patients,and DC value was closely related to cognitive function,which provided a new perspective for further understanding vascular cognitive impairment.VaMCI patients have small-world attributes,and some node attributes are damaged.These abnormal node attributes are mainly located in the default brain network,and the abnormal topological properties may be related to cognitive impairment,which is helpful for the early identification of VaMCI.