Functional magnetic resonance imaging study of motor functional area reorganization in patients with striatocapsular infarction / 中华神经医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To study the dynamic changes of cortical functional reorganization in striatocapsular infarction (SCI) by blood oxygenation level dependent-functional MR imaging (BOLD-fMRI) and its relation with recovery of motor function in the upper extremity of the hemiplegia.Methods:A total of 17 patients with SCI at first onset and combined with upper extremity of the hemiplegia, admitted to our hospital from June 2015 to December 2017, were included; 15 healthy volunteers recruited at the same time were selected as control group. Within 1 week of onset, and 1 and 3 months after onset, BOLD-fMRI was performed under passive finger flexion and extension task on hemiplegia side, and the activation of brain functional areas at different stages was observed by SPM8 software. The Xjview software was used to observe the activation of the corresponding brain activation areas in BOLD-fMRI and make dynamic comparison with the standard brain activation areas. The upper limb part of Fugl-Meyer (FM-UL) scale was used to track the motor function of the upper limb.Results:The activation in the control group was mainly located in the contralateral sensorimotor cortex (SMC) and bilateral supplementary motor area (SMA). The regions of interest in early BOLD-fMRI for stroke patients at early stage can be divided into 3 types. The activation in patients with type I was mainly at the affected side, enjoying bilateral SMC and SMA activation; 1 and 3 months after onset, activation at the contralateral SMC decreased gradually, and activation at the ipsilateral SMC region gradually increased. The activation in patients with type Ⅱ was merely at the ipsilateral SMC and SMA regions; 1 month after onset, bilateral SMC area and SMA area were significantly activated, mainly at the contralateral side; 3 months after onset, the SMC area was further activated at the ipsilateral side and weakened at the ipsilateral side. The activation in patients with type Ⅲ was only at SMC or M1 at the ipsilateral side; 1 month after onset, activation at the ipsilateral SMC area increased slightly; 3 months after onset, activation at the ipsilateral SMC area further enhanced, and SMA area was without activation performance. The FM-UL scores of the affected limbs of patients with type I, type II and type III at the early onst were 10.0±3.3, 10.6±5.7 and 9.2±4.0, respectively, without statistical differences ( P>0.05); 1 month after onset, the FM-UL scores of patients with type I, type II and type III were 52.3±4.6, 36.6±2.4 and 12.5±3.0, respectively, with significant differences ( P<0.05); 3 months after onset, FM-UL scores of patients with type I, type II and type III were 63.7±2.9, 59.2±3.1 and 13.3±5.0, respectively, with statistical differences ( P<0.05). Conclusions:Intracranial functional reorganization is a dynamic process. The early and dynamic activation of the affected SMC region and the early activation of the contralateral SMC region and bilateral SMA regions are of great significance in the process of stroke rehabilitation.