Graph theory analysis reveals how sickle cell disease impacts neural networks of patients with more severe disease.

ABSTRACT: Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a hereditary blood disorder associated with many life-threatening comorbidities including cerebral stroke and chronic pain. The long-term effects of this disease may therefore affect the global brain network which is not clearly understood. We performed graph theory analysis of functional networks using non-invasive fMRI and high resolution EEG on thirty-one SCD patients and sixteen healthy controls. Resting state data were analyzed to determine differences between controls and patients with less severe and more severe sickle cell related pain. fMRI results showed that patients with higher pain severity had lower clustering coefficients and local efficiency. The neural network of the more severe patient group behaved like a random network when performing a targ

SUBMITTER: Case M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6411610 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature