Correlations Between Resting-State Brain Functional Characteristics and TCM Syndrome in Premature Ejaculation Patients with Heart-Kidney Disharmony

OBJECTIVE:To investigate the correlation between the characteristics of resting-state brain function and the types of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) syndrome in premature ejaculation (PE) patients with heart-kidney disharmony, and the pathogenesis of abnormal ejaculation of the patients.METHODS:We enrolled 33 PE patients with heart-kidney disharmony and 32 healthy controls matched in general demographic data, evaluated the severity of the main and concurrent symptoms of PE using the PE Diagnostic Tool (PEDT) and TCM Syndrome Scale (TCMSS), and obtained the brain structural and functional MRI data. We processed the collected data and calculated the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF), fractional ALFF (fALFF) and regional homogeneity (Reho) of the brain with the DPABI software. Using the REST software package, we compared the significantly different brain areas between the PE and control groups by two-sample t-test and corrected the results for multiple comparisons by AlphaSim, followed by Pearson correlation analysis of ALFF, fALFF and Reho in abnormal brain areas and the PEDT and CMSS scores of the patients.RESULTS:The PE patients showed decreased ALFF values in the bilateral inferior temporal gyrus, left middle frontal gyrus and left orbital part of the inferior frontal gyrus, and increased ALFF values in the bilateral hippocampus, thalamus and precuneus, right inferior occipital gyrus, right calcarine and left inferior parietal, with positive correlations of the ALFF values of the left thalamus with the scores on PEDT (r = 0.35, P < 0.05) and TCMSS (r = 0.44, P < 0.05). The fALFF values of the patients were also decreased in the left temporal pole of the middle temporal gyrus and left anterior cingulate gyrus, but increased in the left inferior temporal gyrus. The Reho values of the patients were decreased as well in the right inferior temporal gyrus, left middle frontal gyrus, right dorsolateral superior frontal gyrus, right middle occipital gyrus, right middle occipital gyrus and right precuneus, but increased in the left temporal pole of the middle temporal gyrus, left middle frontal gyrus and left superior frontal gyrus, with negative correlations between the Reho value of the right superior parietal gyrus and TCMSS scores (r = －0.35, P < 0.05).CONCLUSION:Abnormal brain regions were found in PE patients with heart-kidney disharmony, with might be the pathologically associated with PE symptoms and heart-kidney disharmony of the patients.