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• Clinical Article •
Study of white matter function in patients with frontotemporal dementia based on long-ranges functional connectivity density
WEI Wei  FAN Lihua  TIAN Xin  ZHENG Yunsong  ZHOU Feng 

Cite this article as: WEI W, FAN L H, TIAN X, et al. Study of white matter function in patients with frontotemporal dementia based on long-ranges functional connectivity density[J]. Chin J Magn Reson Imaging, 2025, 16(6): 60-65. DOI:10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2025.06.009.


[Abstract] Objective This study employed long-range functional connectivity density (lr-FCD) to assess resting-state functional alterations in the white matter of patients with frontotemporal dementia (FTD).Materials and Methods A total of 31 healthy controls (HC) and 30 FTD patients were included from the Image and Data Archive (IDA). All participants underwent high-resolution T1-weighted structural imaging and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI). The T1 structural images were segmented into gray matter, white matter, and cerebrospinal fluid, and a group-level white matter mask was generated. The rs-fMRI data were preprocessed, and the lr-FCD metric was calculated based on the white matter mask. A one-sample t-test was used to examine the distribution of lr-FCD in both HC and FTD groups, followed by a two-sample t-test to compare intergroup differences in lr-FCD.Results Significant differences were observed in educational attainment between the FTD and HC groups (P < 0.05, t = 3.232). The clinical dementia rating score of the FTD group was (1.200 ± 0.407). The Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores were (29.500 ± 0.626) for the HC group and (23.100 ± 4.140) for the FTD group, showing a statistically significant difference (P < 0.001, t = 3.460). In the HC group, high lr-FCD values were primarily located in the posterior thalamic radiation (including the optic radiation), whereas in the FTD group, they were predominantly found in the posterior corona radiata. Compared with the HC group, the FTD group exhibited significantly increased lr-FCD in the posterior corona radiata and superior longitudinal fasciculus.Conclusions The findings suggest that the neuropathological mechanism of FTD may be associated with abnormal long-range functional connectivity in white matter.
[Keywords] frontotemporal dementia；functional connectivity density；resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging；magnetic resonance imaging；white matter；pathological mechanism

WEI Wei1   FAN Lihua1   TIAN Xin1   ZHENG Yunsong1, 2   ZHOU Feng3*  

1 Department of Medical Imaging, Affiliated Hospital of Shaanxi University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Xianyang 712000, China

2 School of Medical Technology, Shaanxi University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Xianyang 712046, China

3 Department of Scientific Research, Affiliated Hospital of Shaanxi University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Xianyang 712000, China

Corresponding author: ZHOU F, E-mail: 362811715@qq.com

Conflicts of interest   None.

Received  2025-04-10
Accepted  2025-06-10
DOI: 10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2025.06.009
Cite this article as: WEI W, FAN L H, TIAN X, et al. Study of white matter function in patients with frontotemporal dementia based on long-ranges functional connectivity density[J]. Chin J Magn Reson Imaging, 2025, 16(6): 60-65. DOI:10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2025.06.009.

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