The difference of amplitude of low frequency fluctuation in amygdala subregion and its correlation with clinical characteristics in patients with anxious depression / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To explore the difference of amplitude of low frequency fluctuation(ALFF) in amygdala subregions between anxious depression patients and non-anxious depression patients, and its correlation with clinical features.Methods:A total of 144 patients with depression diagnosed by DSM-Ⅳ-TR criteria and exclusion criteria in Nanjing Brain Hospital, meanwhile 62 healthy controls with matching demographic characteristic were recruited.All subjects were scanned with 3.0 T fMRI scanner.The severity of the patients was assessed by Hamilton depression scale (HAMD-17). After preprocessing magnetic resonance data with DPARSFA toolkit in Matlab, ALFF values of each subregion of amygdala were calculated with rest toolkit for different groups of subjects.Patients were divided into anxious group ( n=65) and non-anxious group ( n=79) according to whether their anxiety/somatization factor score was greater than 7.In SPSS 19.0, ANOVA was used to calculate the difference of ALFF in amygdala subregion in three groups, then two-sample t test was used to find the differences between each other group (Bonferroni multiple comparison correction, P<0.05). Pearson correlation analysis was performed between ALFF values of brain regions with significant differences and clinical factors. Results:Compared with the non-anxious group(left central amygdala 1.12±0.21, left dorsolateral nucleus 1.01±0.26, left subcortical amygdala 1.49±0.46), the ALFF values of the left central amygdala(1.22±0.18), left dorsolateral nucleus(1.16±0.33) and left subcortical amygdala(1.90±0.66) in anxious depression group were significantly different (all P<0.01, Bonferroni corrected). Correlation analysis showed that the ALFF value of the left central amygdala in patients with anxious depression was positively correlated with the anxiety/somatization factor score ( r=0.473, P=0.008). Conclusion:Abnormal left amygdala function in patients with depression may be the neuropathological basis of anxiety, among which the abnormal left central nucleus brain area may be related to the severity of anxiety/somatization.