Potential Alterations of Functional Connectivity Analysis in the Patients with Chronic Prostatitis/Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome

[摘要] Background . Chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CP/CPPS) is one of the most common diseases in urology, but its pathogenesis remains unclear. As a kind of chronic pain which the patients suffered for more than 3 months, we investigated the influence on patients’ brain functional connectivity in resting state. Methods . We recruited a cohort of 18 right-handed male patients with CP/CPPS and 21 healthy male right-handed age-matched controls. Their resting-state fMRI data and structural MRI data were preprocessed and processed by RESTPlus V1.22. To assess the integrity of the default mode network (DMN), we utilized the voxel-wised analysis that we set medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and posterior cingulate gyrus (PCC) as seed points to compare the global functional connectivity (FC) strength. Results . Compared with healthy control, the FC strength between left mPFC and posterior DMN decreased in the group of CP/CPPS ( , GFR correction, voxel , cluster ), and the FC strength between the left anterior cerebellar lobe and posterior DMN increased ( , GFR correction, voxel , cluster ). In the patient group, there was a positive correlation between the increased FC strength and the score of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) anxiety subscale ( , ) in the left anterior cerebellar lobe, a negative correlation between the decreased FC strength and the score of the National Institutes of Health Chronic Prostatitis Symptom Index ( , ) in the area of left mPFC, and a negative correlation between the decreased FC strength and the score of HADS anxiety subscale ( , ). Conclusion . Patients with CP/CPPS had alterations in brain function, which consisted of the default mode network’s compromised integrity. These alterations might play a crucial role in the pathogenesis and development of CP/CPPS.