Brain alterations in patients with intractable tinnitus before and after rTMS: A resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging study

作者：Shuangfeng Yang, Dan Yang, Chen Gou, Min Tu, Yu-Ling Tan, Ling Yang, Xiaoming Wang · 发表于：Clinical Neurology and Neurosurgery · 年份：2023 · DOI：10.1016/j.clineuro.2023.107664 · 被引用次数：7 · 研究领域：Hearing, Cochlea, Tinnitus, Genetics、Multisensory perception and integration、Cerebral Venous Sinus Thrombosis

OBJECTIVE: To observe abnormal tinnitus activity by evaluating the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) changes in the brain was which detected by resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) in patients with intractable tinnitus before and after repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS). We hypothesized that rTMS could progressively revert local brain function back to a relatively normal range. METHODS: This prospective observational research study recruited 25 patients with intractable tinnitus, with 28 healthy controls matched by age, sex, and education level. Participants' Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI) scores and the visual analog scale (VAS) were used to determine the severity of their tinnitus before and after treatment. We processed the brain spontaneous neural activity of intractable tinnitus patients by ALFF, then, we determined its association with clinically evaluated indicators of intractable tinnitus. RESULTS: The total and the three sub-modules (functional [F], emotional [E], and catastrophic [C]) score of the THI and VAS in patients with intractable tinnitus decreased after treatment (P < 0.001). The effective rate of tinnitus patients was 66.9%. A few patients had a slight left facial muscle tremor or temporary mild scalp pain during treatment. Compared with healthy controls, participants with tinnitus significantly reduced ALFF within the left and right medial superior frontal gyrus (P < 0.005). After rTMS treatment, th...