Recent studies have demonstrated that hemodialysis patients exhibit disruptions in functional networks with invisible cerebral alterations. We explored the alterations of functional connectivity in hemodialysis patients using the graph-theory method. A total of 46 hemodialysis patients (53.11 ± 1.58 years, 28 males) and 47 healthy controls (55.57 ± 0.86 years, 22 males) were scanned by using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. The brains of these patients were divided into 90 regions and functional connectivity was constructed with the automatic anatomical labeling atlas. In the defined threshold range, the graph-theory analysis was performed to compare the topological properties including global, regional and edge parameters between the hemodialysis and the healthy control groups. Both hemodialysis patients and healthy control subjects demonstrated common small-world property of the brain functional connections. At the global level, the parameters normalized clustering coefficients and small-worldness were significantly decreased in hemodialysis patients compared with those noted in healthy controls. At the regional level, abnormal nodal metrics (increased or decreased nodal degree, betweenness centrality and efficiency) were widely found in hemodialysis patients compared with those of healthy controls. The network-based statistical method was employed and two disrupted neural circuits with 18 nodes and 19 edges (P = 0.0139, corrected) and 10 nodes and 11 edges (P = 0.0399, corrected) were detected. Of note, the edge-increased functional connectivity was associated with the salience network and the frontal-temporal-basal ganglia connection, whereas the edge-decreased functional connectivity was associated with the frontoparietal network. The graph-theory method may be one of the potential tools to detect disruptions of cerebral functional connectivity and provide important evidence for understanding the neuropathology of hemodialysis patients from the disrupted network organization perspective.

最近的研究表明，血液透析患者表现出功能性网络破坏，并伴有看不见的大脑改变。我们使用图论方法探索了血液透析患者功能连接的变化。使用静息态功能磁共振成像对46例血液透析患者（53.11±1.58岁，男性28位）和47例健康对照者（55.57±0.86岁，男性22位）进行了扫描。将这些患者的大脑分为90个区域，并使用自动解剖标记图集构建功能连接。在定义的阈值范围内，执行图论分析以比较血液透析和健康对照组之间的拓扑特性，包括全局，区域和边缘参数。血液透析患者和健康对照者均表现出大脑功能连接的共同小世界特征。在整体水平上，与健康对照组相比，血液透析患者的归一化聚类系数和小样本参数显着降低。在区域一级，与健康对照组相比，血液透析患者广泛发现异常淋巴结指标（淋巴结程度增高或降低，中间性和效率）。采用了基于网络的统计方法，并使用了两个具有18个节点和19个边的中断神经回路（与健康对照组相比，血液透析患者的归一化聚类系数和小样本参数显着降低。在区域一级，与健康对照组相比，血液透析患者广泛发现异常淋巴结指标（淋巴结程度增高或降低，中间性和效率）。采用了基于网络的统计方法，并使用了两个具有18个节点和19个边的中断神经回路（与健康对照组相比，血液透析患者的归一化聚类系数和小样本参数显着降低。在区域一级，与健康对照组相比，血液透析患者广泛发现异常淋巴结指标（淋巴结程度增高或降低，中间性和效率）。采用了基于网络的统计方法，并使用了两个具有18个节点和19个边的中断神经回路（P  = 0.0139，已校正）并 检测到10个节点和11个边缘（P = 0.0399，已校正）。值得注意的是，边缘增加的功能连接与显着网络和额颞基神经节连接相关，而边缘减少的功能连接与额顶网络相关。图论方法可能是检测脑功能连通性中断的潜在工具之一，并为从中断的网络组织角度了解血液透析患者的神经病理学提供重要证据。