title: Altered resting-state cerebral blood flow and its connectivity in schizophrenia.
abstract: Small sample sizes and large inter-subject variations result in inconsistent findings in resting-state cerebral blood flow (CBF) in schizophrenia. The CBF connectivity alterations in schizophrenia remain unclear. Recently, three-dimensional pseudo-continuous arterial spin labeling (pcASL) imaging was performed to measure the resting-state CBF in 100 schizophrenia patients and 94 healthy comparison subjects. The normalized CBF was used to reduce the inter-subject variations. Both group comparisons in the CBF and correlations between the CBF alterations and clinical parameters were assessed. The CBF connectivity of the brain regions with regional CBF differences was also compared between the groups. Compared with the healthy controls, the schizophrenia patients exhibited increased CBF in the bilateral inferior temporal gyri, thalami and putamen and decreased CBF in the left insula and middle frontal gyrus and the bilateral anterior cingulate cortices and middle occipital gyri. In the schizophrenia patients, significant correlations were identified between the CBF and clinical parameters. Importantly, the schizophrenia patients exhibited CBF disconnections between the left thalamus and right medial superior frontal gyrus and between the left insula and left postcentral gyrus. Our results suggest that schizophrenia patients may exhibit both regional CBF abnormalities and deficits in CBF connectivity, which may underlie the clinical symptoms of schizophrenia.
authors: Department of Radiology and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin 300052, China.
authors: Jiajia
authors: J
authors: Zhu
authors: Tianjin Anning Hospital, Tianjin 300300, China; Department of Psychiatry Functional Neuroimaging Laboratory, Tianjin Mental Health Center, Tianjin Anding Hospital, Tianjin 300070, China.
authors: Chuanjun
authors: C
authors: Zhuo
authors: Department of Radiology and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin 300052, China.
authors: Wen
authors: W
authors: Qin
authors: Department of Radiology and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin 300052, China.
authors: Yongjie
authors: Y
authors: Xu
authors: Department of Radiology and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin 300052, China.
authors: Lixue
authors: L
authors: Xu
authors: Department of Radiology and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin 300052, China.
authors: Xingyun
authors: X
authors: Liu
authors: Department of Radiology and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin 300052, China. Electronic address: chunshuiyu@tijmu.edu.cn.
authors: Chunshui
authors: C
authors: Yu
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012146:Rest; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Arterial spin labeling; Cerebral blood flow; Connectivity; Magnetic resonance imaging; Schizophrenia