Altered static and dynamic functional network connectivity in Primary angle-closure glaucoma patients

Abstract

Abstract Objective: To explore altered patterns of static and dynamic functional brain network connectivity (sFNC and dFNC) in Primary angle-closure glaucoma (PACG) patients. Methods: Clinically confirmed 34 PACG patients and 33 age- and gender-matched healthy controls (HCs) underwent evaluation using T1 anatomical and functional MRI on a 3T scanner. Independent component analysis, sliding window, and the K-means clustering method were employed to investigate the functional network connectivity (FNC) and temporal metrics based on eight resting-state networks. Differences in FNC and temporal metrics were identified and subsequently correlated with clinical variables. Results: For sFNC, compared with HCs, PACG patients showed three decreased interactions, including SMN-AN, SMN-VN and VN-AN pairs. For dFNC, the results are highly congruent. In addition, PACG patients had a decreased fraction of time and mean dwell time in state 2 and an increased fraction of time and mean dwell time in state 3 (p < 0.05). Conclusion: PACG patients exhibit abnormalities in both sFNC and dFNC. The high degree of overlap between static and dynamic results suggests the stability of functional connectivity networks in PACG patients, which provide a new perspective to understand the neuropathological mechanisms of optic nerve damage in PACG patients.