Alteration of cerebral regional homogeneity within sensorimotor network in patients with cervical spondylotic myelopathy after spinal cord decompression: a resting-state functional MRI study

Objective: To assess the altered regional homogeneity (ReHo) of local intrinsic cerebral activity within sensorimotor network(SMN) in patients with cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM) before or after spinal cord decompression using functional MRI (fMRI). Methods: Twenty-one CSM patients who would decompress spinal canal, and 21 healthy volunteers (age, gender and level of education matched) were enrolled from June 2013 to April 2014. All the patients underwent rs-fMRI examination before and 3 months after spinal cord decompression. ReHo measurement was performed statistically within a SMN mask. A second-level random-effect 2-tailed Student's t test was applied to compare the ReHo results between pre-and post-operation CSM patients and healthy volunteers. A second-level paired 2-tailed Student's t test was applied to compare the ReHo results between pre-and post-operation CSM patients. Pearson correlation analysis was performed to assess the correlations between the altered ReHo and clinical evaluation. Results Compared with healthy volunteers, pre-operation patients showed significantly lower ReHo in the left postcentral gyrus/precentral gyrus, together with enhanced ReHo in the right superior parietal lobule (GRF correction, P < 0.05). Post-operation CSM patients showed significantly lower ReHo in the right superior parietal lobule comparing with healthy volunteers, as well as enhanced ReHo in the left postcentral gyrus/precentral gyrus comparing with pre-operation (GRF correction, P < 0.05). Abnormal ReHo areas in CSM patients demonstrated no significant correlation with clinical measurements (P > 0.05) between pre-operation and post-operation. Conclusions: Myelopathy in cervical cord may affect intrinsic cerebral activity, as patients with CSM show disrupted regional homogeneity within sensorimotor network. The change of ReHo following decompression suggests that central plasticity may influence functional recovery. (authors)