Investigation of Changes in Retinal Detachment-Related Brain Region Activities and Functions Using the Percent Amplitude of Fluctuation Method: A Resting-State Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study

Purpose: The percent amplitude of fluctuation (PerAF) method was used to study the changes in neural activities and functions in specific brain regions of patients with a retinal detachment (RD).

Patients And Methods: In this study, we recruited 15 RD patients (nine males and six females) and 15 healthy controls (HCs) matched for gender, age, and weight. All participants were scanned with resting functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI). The PerAF method was then used for data analysis to evaluate and detect changes in neural activity in relevant brain regions. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used to evaluate the two groups.

Results: The PerAF signal values of the right fusiform gyrus and the left inferior temporal gyrus of RD patients were significantly higher than those of HCs. This may indicate changes in neural activity and function in the related brain regions. The anxiety and depression scores of hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS) and the durations in RD patients were positively correlated with the PerAF values of the left inferior temporal gyrus.

Conclusion: In this study, we demonstrated that there were significant changes in the PerAF values in specific areas of the brain in patients with RD. The change of PerAF values represent the changes of BOLD signal intensity, which reflect the hyperactivity or weakening of specific brain regions in RD patients, which are helpful to predict the development and prognosis of RD patients, and play an important role in the early diagnosis of RD. In addition, according to the results, changes in neural activity in specific brain regions of RD patients increase the risk of brain dysfunction related diseases, which may help to understand the pathological mechanism of vision loss in RD patients.