TY - JOUR A2 - Rao, Hengyi AU - Zheng, Gang AU - Zhang, Liping AU - Zhang, Long Jiang AU - Li, Qiang AU - Pan, Zhiying AU - Liang, Xue AU - Shi, Donghong AU - Lu, Guang Ming PY - 2014 DA - 2014/06/05 TI - Altered Modular Organization of Functional Connectivity Networks in Cirrhotic Patients without Overt Hepatic Encephalopathy SP - 727452 VL - 2014 AB - Minimal hepatic encephalopathy (MHE) is associated with changes in functional connectivity. To investigate the patterns of modular changes of the functional connectivity in the progression of MHE, resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging was acquired in 24 MHE patients, 31 cirrhotic patients without minimal hepatic encephalopathy (non-HE), and 38 healthy controls. Newman’s metric, the modularity Q value, was maximized and compared in three groups. Topological roles with the progression of MHE were illustrated by intra- and intermodular connectivity changes. Results showed that the Q value of MHE patients was significantly lower than that of controls P<0.01 rather than that of non-HE patients P>0.05, which was correlated with neuropsychological test scores rather than the ammonia level and Child-Pugh score. Less intrasubcortical connections and more isolated subcortical modules were found with the progression of MHE. The non-HE patients had the same numbers of connect nodes as controls and had more hubs compared with MHE patients and healthy controls. Our findings supported that both intra- and intermodular connectivity, especially those related to subcortical regions, were continuously impaired in cirrhotic patients. The adjustments of hubs and connector nodes in non-HE patients could be a compensation for the decreased modularity in their functional connectivity networks. SN - 2314-6133 UR - https://doi.org/10.1155/2014/727452 DO - 10.1155/2014/727452 JF - BioMed Research International PB - Hindawi Publishing Corporation KW - ER -