Altered Brain Function and Network Topology in Patients With Acromegaly: Resting‐State fMRI Study of Networks Related to Cognitive and Emotional Processing

TL;DR

This study finds that patients with acromegaly have altered brain activity and network disruptions linked to cognitive decline.

Contribution

The study reveals novel insights into how excess growth hormone affects brain function and connectivity in acromegaly patients.

Findings

Patients with acromegaly show increased ALFF in default mode network regions and decreased fALFF in frontal–parietal areas.

ReHo is elevated in the visual network but reduced in the frontal–parietal network in acromegaly patients.

Disruptions in key hub nodes of the default mode and visual networks were observed, with 85.11% classification accuracy using MK-SVM.

Abstract

Neurodegenerative diseases are particularly prevalent among patients with acromegaly, but their functional alterations remain poorly understood.

To explore the neurobiological mechanisms of excess growth hormone (GH) on brain functional activity and connectivity in acromegaly.

Neuropsychological assessments and resting‐state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) were conducted on 27 patients with acromegaly and 25 healthy controls. The amplitude of low‐frequency fluctuations (ALFF), fractional ALFF (fALFF), and regional homogeneity (ReHo) were compared between groups via voxel‐based analyses, while graph theory was used to assess brain network topology. T‐tests and multikernel support vector machine (MK‐SVM) were used to identify discriminative connectome features for classification.

Patients with acromegaly exhibited lower Montreal Cognitive Assessment scores, increased ALFF in the default mode network regions, and decreased fALFF in the frontal–parietal control network areas. ReHo was elevated in the visual network but reduced in the frontal–parietal network. Disruptions were observed in key hub nodes within the default mode and visual networks. The MK‐SVM achieved 85.11% accuracy and 80.00% sensitivity in classifying patients.

Patients with acromegaly exhibited altered brain function and network disruptions. These results offer novel insights into the mechanisms of excess GH in the brain.

Patients with acromegaly show disrupted brain function and network connectivity, particularly in the default mode and frontal–parietal networks. This study reveals how excess GH and IGF‐1 alter brain activity, offering new insights into the neurobiological mechanisms underlying cognitive decline in acromegaly.

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