title: Abnormal degree centrality in neurologically asymptomatic patients with end-stage renal disease: A resting-state fMRI study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  End-stage renal disease (ESRD), characterized by multi-organ dysfunction, has been shown to co-occur with abnormal brain function. Previous resting-state fMRI studies suggested that regional brain spontaneous activity and functional connectivity within the default mode network are abnormal in ESRD patients. The current study aimed to depict intrinsic dysconnectivity pattern of whole-brain functional networks in voxel level in neurologically asymptomatic patients with ESRD.
  
  
  METHODS
  fMRI datasets were acquired from 22 ESRD patients (without clinical neurological disease) and 29 healthy control (HC) subjects. We investigated the degree centrality for a given element in a network to reveal the changes of functional connectivity throughout the huge human functional network. In the brain regions showing a difference between the HC and ESRD groups, we further conducted receptive operation characteristic (ROC) analyses to confirm the accuracy, sensitivity and specificity of our results.
  
  
  RESULTS
  ESRD patients showed decreased functional connectivity in the left inferior parietal and left precuneus within the brain network; both regions are important components of the default-mode network (DMN). In contrast, patients showed increased connectivity in depression-related regions including bilateral inferior frontal gyrus and right superior temporal gyrus. These regions showed an acceptable accuracy (0.68-0.75), sensitivity (0.64-0.70) and high specificity (0.82-0.96) in distinguishing between the two groups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings reveal abnormal intrinsic dysconnectivity pattern of whole-brain functional networks in ESRD patients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results could lead to a better understanding of the intrinsic dysconnectivity patterns of default-mode network-related regions in ESRD patients from the whole brain network perspective.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Imaging, Guangdong No. 2 Provincial People's Hospital, No. 466 Xingang Road, Haizhu Distinct, Guangzhou 510317, PR China.
authors.forename: Shumei
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Imaging, Guangdong No. 2 Provincial People's Hospital, No. 466 Xingang Road, Haizhu Distinct, Guangzhou 510317, PR China.
authors.forename: Xiaofen
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: Center for the Study of Applied Psychology, Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science of Guangdong Province, School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, PR China.
authors.forename: Ruiwang
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Imaging, Guangdong No. 2 Provincial People's Hospital, No. 466 Xingang Road, Haizhu Distinct, Guangzhou 510317, PR China.
authors.forename: Meng
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Imaging, Guangdong No. 2 Provincial People's Hospital, No. 466 Xingang Road, Haizhu Distinct, Guangzhou 510317, PR China.
authors.forename: Junzhang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Imaging, Guangdong No. 2 Provincial People's Hospital, No. 466 Xingang Road, Haizhu Distinct, Guangzhou 510317, PR China.
authors.forename: Hua
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wen
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Imaging, Guangdong No. 2 Provincial People's Hospital, No. 466 Xingang Road, Haizhu Distinct, Guangzhou 510317, PR China.
authors.forename: Chulan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Imaging, Guangdong No. 2 Provincial People's Hospital, No. 466 Xingang Road, Haizhu Distinct, Guangzhou 510317, PR China.
authors.forename: Tianyue
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Imaging, Guangdong No. 2 Provincial People's Hospital, No. 466 Xingang Road, Haizhu Distinct, Guangzhou 510317, PR China.
authors.forename: Wenfeng
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhan
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Imaging, Guangdong No. 2 Provincial People's Hospital, No. 466 Xingang Road, Haizhu Distinct, Guangzhou 510317, PR China.
authors.forename: Jin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Imaging, Guangdong No. 2 Provincial People's Hospital, No. 466 Xingang Road, Haizhu Distinct, Guangzhou 510317, PR China. Electronic address: GH.jiang2002@163.com.
authors.forename: Guihua
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Jiang
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D058070:Asymptomatic Diseases; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007676:Kidney Failure, Chronic / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012146:Rest / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Degree centrality; End-stage renal disease (ESRD); Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI); Whole-brain functional networks