Altered spontaneous brain activity in Cushing's disease: a resting-state functional MRI study

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Endocrinology
• Medical Imaging

Background:

• Cushing's disease (CD) offers a model to study hypercortisolism's effects on the brain.
• Understanding these effects and their reversibility is crucial for patient management.

Purpose of the Study:

• Investigate altered spontaneous brain activity in CD using resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI).
• Assess potential reversibility of these brain changes after hypercortisolism resolution.
• Correlate brain activity changes with clinical characteristics and cortisol levels.

Main Methods:

• Cross-sectional study involving active CD patients, remitted CD patients, and healthy controls.
• Utilized rs-fMRI to measure Amplitude of Low-Frequency Fluctuation (ALFF) and Regional Homogeneity (ReHo).
• Analyzed spontaneous brain activity in specific brain regions.

Main Results:

• Active CD patients exhibited altered spontaneous brain activity in regions including the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC)/precuneus (PCu) and prefrontal cortex (PFC).
• Observed trends suggesting partial restoration of brain activity in several regions after hypercortisolism resolution.
• Found significant correlations between cortisol levels and brain activity (ALFF/ReHo) in the PCC/PCu and other areas.

Conclusions:

• rs-fMRI provides a valuable approach to study brain function abnormalities in CD.
• Hypercortisolism significantly impacts brain activity, with potential for partial reversibility.
• Findings support further longitudinal studies to explore brain recovery in CD patients.