Correlation between anxiety symptoms and abnormal brain function in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Objective To analyze the correlation between anxiety symptoms and abnormal brain function in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) under long-term chronic hypoxia.

Methods Twenty-one patients with COPD complicated with anxiety were prospectively selected as COPD group, and 26 healthy individuals matched for gender and age were selected as control group. Both groups underwent high-resolution 3D-T1-weighted imaging (3D-T1WI), T2-fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (T2-FLAIR), and blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) sequence examination. DPARSF and SPM8 software were used to analyze the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) in the brain of the two groups.

Results In the COPD group, the ALFF value in the left parahippocampal gyrus-cingulate gyrus increased, and the ALFF value in the right superior frontal gyrus decreased (P < 0.05). Pearson correlation analysis found that there was a negative correlation between the ALFF value in the right superior frontal gyrus and the anxiety score (r=-0.485, P=0.03).

Conclusion Chronic hypoxic patients with COPD have brain functional impairment in the right superior frontal gyrus, and the degree of impairment is positively correlated with anxiety symptoms. There may also be compensatory enhancement of brain function activity in the parahippocampal gyrus-cingulate gyrus.