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Altered Brain Function in Young HIV Patients with Syphilis Infection: A Voxel-Wise Degree Centrality Analysis
Xiao-Dong Zhang1,2, Guang-Xue Liu3, Xiao-Yue Wang2
1Department of Radiology, Tianjin First Central Hospital, Tianjin 300192, People's Republic of China.
Objective:
This study assessed the possible effect of syphilis co-infection in the brain function in young HIV patients by using voxel-wise degree centrality (DC) analysis.
Methods:
Forty-four syphilis-co-infected HIV patients (HIV+/syphilis+), 45 HIV patients without syphilis history (HIV+/syphilis-) and 43 matched healthy controls (HC) underwent resting-state fMRI examinations. Laboratory tests and a battery of neuropsychological tests were performed before each MRI examination. One-way ANOVA was used to compare the differences of DC among the three groups. The correlations between MRI metrics and laboratory/neuropsychological tests in each patient's group were performed by Pearson correlation analysis.
Results:
Compared with HIV+/syphilis-, worse performance in complex motor skills was found in HIV+/syphilis+. Compared with HC, HIV+/syphilis+ and HIV+/syphilis- groups showed attenuated DC in the right orbital frontal cortex and increased DC in the left parietal/temporal cortex. Besides, we also found increased DC in the left inferior frontal cortex and bilateral posterior cingulated cortex/precuneus in HIV+/syphilis+ compared with HC. Moreover, compared with HIV+/syphilis-, HIV+/syphilis+ displayed decreased DC in the left middle occipital cortex. Additionally, in HIV+/syphilis+ group, the mean z value of DC was correlated to the CD4+ cell counts and the learning and delayed recall score.
Conclusion:
Syphilis co-infection might be related to more brain functional reorganization in young HIV patients which could be reflected by DC value.
