Altered voxel-wise degree centrality of brain networks in patients with chronic rhinosinusitis: a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging study.

Background: Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the paranasal sinus and nasal cavity. Previous studies have demonstrated that patients with CRS have an increased risk of emotional and cognitive disorders. Although neuroimaging studies have identified brain alterations in CRS, the specific etiology of these neurological changes remains unclear. This study thus examined the abnormal brain networks in patients with CRS through use of a voxel-wise degree centrality (DC) approach.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 26 patients with CRS and 38 healthy controls (HCs) were enrolled for resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) scans. The DC value was calculated and correlated with clinical symptoms and with anxiety and depression scores in the CRS group. Moreover, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used to evaluate the diagnostic utility of DC in distinguishing patients from HCs.

Results: Compared with HCs, patients with CRS had decreased DC values in the right precuneus and increased DC values in the left inferior temporal gyrus (ITG) (P<0.05, false-discovery rate corrected). In addition, a positive correlation was identified between the DC values in the left ITG and disease duration (R=0.5317; P=0.0052). ROC curves analysis indicated that the DC values in the right precuneus [area under the curve (AUC) =0.7945] and left ITG (AUC =0.7915) had significant diagnostic accuracy, indicating their potential utility as imaging biomarkers for CRS.

Conclusions: Altered DC in the right precuneus and the left ITG may play important roles in the pathological changes underlying CRS-related brain dysfunction.