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Outcomes at 6?months are related to brain structural and white matter microstructural reorganization in idiopathic tinnitus patients treated with sound therapy.

ABSTRACT: This study aimed to explore brain structural and white matter microstructural reorganization in the early stage of tinnitus and identify brain alterations that contribute to its relief after 6?months of sound therapy. We studied 64 patients with idiopathic tinnitus, including 29 patients who were categorized into an effective group (EG) and 35 who were categorized into an ineffective group (IG) according to the 6-month follow-up improvement of the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory score, along with 63 healthy controls (HCs). All participants underwent structural and diffusion tensor imaging scanning on a 3-T magnetic resonance system. Differences in brain gray/white matter volume and white matter microstructure were evaluated using voxel-based morphometry analysis and tract-based spatial statistics among the three groups. Associations between brain reorganization and the improvement of tinnitus symptoms were also investigated. Compared with EG patients, IG patients experienced a significant gray matter volume decrease in the right middle frontal gyrus (MFG)/right precentral gyrus (PreCG). Meanwhile, both EG and IG patients showed significant changes (decrease or increase) in brain white matter integrity in the auditory-related or nonauditory-related white matter fiber tracts compared with HCs, while EG patients showed decreased axial diffusivity in the bilateral middle cerebellar peduncle (MCP) compared with IG patients. We combined the gray matter change of the MFG/PreCG and the white matter integrity of the bilateral MCP as an imaging indicator to evaluate the patient's prognosis and screen patients before treatment; this approach reached a sensitivity of 77.1% and a specificity of 82.8%. Our study suggests that there was a close relationship between brain reorganization and tinnitus improvement. The right MFG/PreCG and bilateral MCP may be indicators that can be used to predict prognoses in patients with idiopathic tinnitus and may be used to screen patients before sound therapy. These findings may provide new useful information that can lead to a better understanding of the tinnitus mechanism.

SUBMITTER: Chen Q

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7814769 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Outcomes at 6 months are related to brain structural and white matter microstructural reorganization in idiopathic tinnitus patients treated with sound therapy.

Chen Qian Q Lv Han H Wang Zhaodi Z Wei Xuan X Zhao Pengfei P Yang Zhenghan Z Gong Shusheng S Wang Zhenchang Z

Human brain mapping 20201024 3

This study aimed to explore brain structural and white matter microstructural reorganization in the early stage of tinnitus and identify brain alterations that contribute to its relief after 6 months of sound therapy. We studied 64 patients with idiopathic tinnitus, including 29 patients who were categorized into an effective group (EG) and 35 who were categorized into an ineffective group (IG) according to the 6-month follow-up improvement of the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory score, along with 63 ...[more]

PMID: 33098363

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Project description:It remains unknown whether tinnitus or tinnitus-related hearing loss (HL) could indirectly impair or reshape the white matter (WM) of the human brain. We aim to explore the possible brain WM change in tinnitus patients without HL and further to investigate their associations with clinical variables. Structural and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) of 20 idiopathic tinnitus patients without HL and 22 healthy controls (HCs) were obtained. Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) analysis were conducted to investigate the differences in WM volume and integrity between patients and HCs, separately. We extracted WM parameters to determine a sensitive imaging index to differentiate the idiopathic tinnitus patients from the HCs in the early stage. Correlations between the clinical variables and WM indices were also performed in patients. Compared with the controls, the tinnitus patients without HL exhibited significant decreased fractional anisotropy (FA) in the body and genu of corpus callosum (CC), left cingulum (LC) and right cingulum (RC), and right superior longitudinal fasciculus (RSLF) and increase in mean diffusivity (MD) in the body of CC in WM. Moreover, the patients also showed decreases in WM axial diffusivity (AD) in LC, left superior longitudinal fasciculus (LSLF), and right interior cerebellar peduncle (ICP) and increases in radial diffusivity (RD) in the body and genu of CC and RSLF (p < 0.05, voxel-level FWE corrected). Furthermore, the increased RD value of the genu of CC is closely associated with the tinnitus handicap inventory (THI) subscale scores. No WMV changes were detected in tinnitus patients. We combined the altered WM integrity index of body and genu of CC and LC and RSLF as an index to differentiate the two groups and reached a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 77.3%. Our findings suggest that tinnitus without HL is associated with significant alterations of WM integrity. These changes may be irrespective of the duration and other clinical performance. The combination of diffusion indices of body and genu of CC and LC and RSLF might be used as the potential useful imaging index for the diagnosis of persistent idiopathic tinnitus without HL in the early stage.

Project description:Sound therapy is one of the most common first-line treatments for idiopathic tinnitus. We aimed to investigate the brain structural and functional alterations between patients with idiopathic tinnitus without hearing loss (HL) and healthy controls (HCs) and between patients before and after sound therapy (narrow band noise). Structural and resting-state functional images were acquired from 13 tinnitus patients without HL and 18 HCs before and after 6 months of narrow band sound therapy (only patients received the treatment). Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and independent component analysis (ICA) were conducted to separately investigate the brain structural and functional changes. Associations between brain changes and clinical variables were also performed. After the treatment, the % improvement of THI score was -1.30% (± 63.40%). Compared with HCs, tinnitus patients showed gray matter and white matter atrophy in the left middle temporal gyrus at baseline, and the gray matter volume was further reduced after the treatment. The patients also showed increased white matter volume in the cingulum (cingulate), right calcarine, left rolandic operculum, and left parietal and frontal lobes. Additionally, compared with HCs, tinnitus patients exhibited positive [medial visual network (mVN) and sensorimotor network (SMN), mVN and auditory network (AN)] and negative [mVN and lateral visual network (lVN)] internetwork functional connectivity (FC) at baseline and negative [left frontoparietal network (LFPN) and dorsal attention network (DAN), AN and posterior default mode network (pDMN)] internetwork FC after the narrow band sound therapy. The patients also showed negative [LFPN and right frontoparietal network (RFPN), LFPN and RFPN, anterior default mode network (aDMN) and AN, aDMN and DAN] internetwork FC after the treatment when compared with baseline. Our findings suggest that although the outcomes of idiopathic tinnitus patients without HL were not very good when the improvement of THI scores was used as an evaluation indicator, the patients experienced significant differences in auditory-related and non-auditory-related brain reorganization before and after the narrow band sound therapy, that is, sound therapy may have a significant effect on brain reorganization in patients with idiopathic tinnitus. This study may provide some new useful information for the understanding of mechanisms underlying idiopathic tinnitus.

Dataset Information

Outcomes at 6?months are related to brain structural and white matter microstructural reorganization in idiopathic tinnitus patients treated with sound therapy.

Publications

Outcomes at 6 months are related to brain structural and white matter microstructural reorganization in idiopathic tinnitus patients treated with sound therapy.

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