Imaging of Morphological Background in Selected Functional and Inflammatory Gastrointestinal Diseases in fMRI

The study focuses on evaluation of the Default Mode Network (DMN) activity in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in resting state in patients with functional dyspepsia (FD) and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), Crohn's disease and colitis ulcerosa (IBD) in comparison to healthy volunteers. We assume that etiology of both functional and non-specific inflammatory bowel diseases is correlated with disrupted structure of axonal connections. We would like to identify the network of neuronal connections responsible for presentation of symptoms in these diseases. 56 patients (functional dyspepsia, 18; Crohn's disease and colitis ulcerosa, 18; irritable bowel syndrome, 20) and 18 healthy volunteers underwent examination in MRI of the brain with assessment of brain morphology and central nervous system activity in functional imaging in resting state performed in 3T scanner. Compared to healthy controls' DMN in patients with non-specific digestive tract diseases comprised additional areas in superior frontal gyrus of left hemisphere, in left cingulum and in the left supplementary motor area. Discovered differences in the DMNs can be interpreted as altered processing of homeostatic stimuli. Our study group involved patients suffering from both functional and non-specific inflammatory bowel diseases. Nevertheless a spectrum of changes in the study group (superior frontal gyrus of the left hemisphere, in the left cingulum and in the left supplementary motor area) we were able to find common features, differentiating the whole study group from the healthy controls.