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

• Main Authors: Chen, Q. (Author), Gong, S. (Author), Lv, H. (Author), Wang, Z. (Author), Wei, X. (Author), Yang, Z. (Author), Zhao, P. (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: John Wiley and Sons Inc 2021
• Subjects: Acoustic Stimulation; adult; Adult; Article; auditory stimulation; axial diffusivity; brain cortex; brain reorganization; Cerebral Cortex; controlled study; data analysis software; diagnostic imaging; diffusion tensor imaging; Diffusion Tensor Imaging; disability; female; Female; follow up; Follow-Up Studies; gray matter; Gray Matter; gray matter volume; human; Humans; idiopathic tinnitus; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; major clinical study; male; Male; middle aged; Middle Aged; middle cerebellar peduncle; Middle Cerebellar Peduncle; neuroimaging; Neuroimaging; nuclear magnetic resonance imaging; outcome assessment; Outcome Assessment, Health Care; pathology; primary motor cortex; priority journal; prognosis; scoring system; sensitivity and specificity; Sensitivity and Specificity; sound therapy; therapy; tinnitus; Tinnitus; tinnitus handicap inventory score; tract-based spatial statistics; voxel based morphometry; voxel-based morphometry; white matter; White Matter
• Online Access: View Fulltext in Publisher

 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. © 2020 The Authors. Human Brain Mapping published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.