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This study aims to delineate the causal relationships between idiopathic tinnitus in different stages and severity and the morphological properties in specific brain regions. We utilized a two-sample bidirectional Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis to ascertain the causal effects of brain structural attributes on varying severities and stages of tinnitus. Our approach involved harnessing genetic variables derived from extensive genome-wide association studies as instrumental variables, centered mainly on pertinent single-nucleotide polymorphisms associated with tinnitus. Subsequently, we integrated this data with brain structural imaging inputs to facilitate the MR analysis. We also applied reverse MR analysis to pinpoint the critical brain regions implicated in the onset of tinnitus. Our analysis revealed a demonstrable causal relationship between tinnitus and brain structural alterations, including changes primarily within the auditory cortex and hub regions of the limbic system, as well as portions of the frontal-temporal-occipital circuit. We found that individuals exhibiting cortical thickness alterations in the bilateral peri-calcarine and right superior occipital gyrus might have previously experienced tinnitus. Changes in the cortical areas of the right rectus, left inferior frontal gyrus, and right pars-orbitalis appeared unrelated to tinnitus. Furthermore, moderate tinnitus patients showed more pronounced structural alterations. This study substantiates that tinnitus could instigate substantial structural alterations mainly within the auditory-limbic-frontal-visual system, while the reciprocal causality was not supported. Moreover, the data underscores that moderate, rather than severe, tinnitus precipitates the most significant structural changes. Morphological alterations in several specific brain areas either indicate a history of tinnitus or bear no relation to it., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The Authors declare that there is no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The aim of this study was to systematically investigate structural and functional alterations in amygdala subregions using multimodal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in patients with tinnitus with or without affective dysfunction. Sixty patients with persistent tinnitus and 40 healthy controls (HCs) were recruited. Based on a questionnaire assessment, 26 and 34 patients were categorized into the tinnitus patients with affective dysfunction (TPAD) and tinnitus patients without affective dysfunction (TPWAD) groups, respectively. MRI-based measurements of gray matter volume, fractional anisotropy (FA), fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (fALFF), regional homogeneity (ReHo), degree centrality (DC), and functional connectivity (FC) were conducted within 14 amygdala subregions for intergroup comparisons. Associations between the MRI properties and clinical characteristics were estimated via partial correlation analyses. Compared with that of the HCs, the TPAD and TPWAD groups exhibited significant structural and functional changes, including white matter integrity (WMI), fALFF, ReHo, DC, and FC alterations, with more pronounced WMI changes in the TPAD group, predominantly within the left auxiliary basal or basomedial nucleus (AB/BM), right central nucleus, right lateral nuclei (dorsal portion), and left lateral nuclei (ventral portion containing basolateral portions). Moreover, the TPAD group exhibited decreased FC between the left AB/BM and left middle occipital gyrus and right superior frontal gyrus (SFG), left basal nucleus and right SFG, and right lateral nuclei (intermediate portion) and right SFG. In combination, these amygdalar alterations exhibited a sensitivity of 65.4% and specificity of 96.9% in predicting affective dysfunction in patients with tinnitus. Although similar structural and functional amygdala remodeling were observed in the TPAD and TPWAD groups, the changes were more pronounced in the TPAD group. These changes mainly involved alterations in functionality and white matter microstructure in various amygdala subregions; in combination, these changes could serve as an imaging-based predictor of emotional disorders in patients with tinnitus., (© 2024 The Author(s). Human Brain Mapping published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Objectives: Potential reverse causality and unmeasured confounding factors are common biases in most neuroimaging studies on tinnitus and central correlates. The causal association of tinnitus with neuroimaging features also remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate the causal relationship of tinnitus with neuroplastic alterations using Mendelian randomization., Design: Summary-level data from a genome-wide association study of tinnitus were derived from UK Biobank (n = 117,882). The genome-wide association study summary statistics for 4 global-brain tissue and 14 sub-brain gray matter volumetric traits were also obtained (n = up to 33,224). A bidirectional Mendelian randomization analysis was conducted to explore the causal relationship between tinnitus and neuroanatomical features at global-brain and sub-brain levels., Results: Genetic susceptibility to tinnitus was causally associated with increased white matter volume (odds ratio [OR] = 2.361, 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.033 to 5.393) and total brain volume (OR = 2.391, 95% CI, 1.047 to 5.463) but inversely associated with cerebrospinal fluid volume (OR = 0.362, 95% CI, 0.158 to 0.826). A smaller gray matter volume in the left Heschl's gyrus and right insular cortex and larger gray matter volume in the posterior division of the left parahippocampal gyrus may lead to an increased risk for tinnitus (OR = 0.978, 95% CI, 0.961 to 0.996; OR = 0.987, 95% CI, 0.976 to 0.998; and OR = 1.015, 95% CI, 1.001 to 1.028, respectively)., Conclusions: Genetic susceptibility to tinnitus was causally associated with increased white matter volume and total brain volume. Volume alteration in several cortical regions may indicate a higher tinnitus risk, and further research is recommended for causality inference at the level of sub-brain regions. Our findings provide genetic evidence for elucidating the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms of tinnitus-related neuroanatomical abnormalities., Competing Interests: The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose., (Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Ear & Hearing is published on behalf of the American Auditory Society, by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.)

Using functional connectivity (FC) or effective connectivity (EC) alone cannot effectively delineate brain networks based on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data, limiting the understanding of the mechanism of tinnitus and its treatment. Investigating brain FC is a foundational step in exploring EC. This study proposed a functionally guided EC (FGEC) method based on reinforcement learning (FGECRL) to enhance the precision of identifying EC between distinct brain regions. An actor-critic framework with an encoder-decoder model was adopted as the actor network. The encoder utilizes a transformer model; the decoder employs a bidirectional long short-term memory network with attention. An FGEC network was constructed for the enrolled participants per fMRI scan, including 65 patients with tinnitus and 28 control participants healthy at the enrollment time. After 6 months of sound therapy for tinnitus and prospective follow-up, fMRI data were acquired again and retrospectively categorized into an effective group (EG) and an ineffective group (IG) according to the treatment effect. Compared with FC and EC, the FGECRL method demonstrated better accuracy in discriminating between different groups, highlighting the advantage of FGECRL in identifying brain network features. For the FGEC network of the EG and IG per state (before and after treatment) and healthy controls, effective therapy is characterized by a similar pattern of FGEC network between patients with tinnitus after treatment and healthy controls. Deactivated information output in the motor network, somatosensory network, and medioventral occipital cortex may biologically indicate effective treatment. The maintenance of decreased EC in the primary auditory cortex may represent a failure of sound therapy, further supporting the Bayesian inference theory for tinnitus perception. The FGEC network can provide direct evidence for the mechanism of sound therapy in patients with tinnitus with distinct outcomes.

Aims: This study systematically investigated structural and functional alterations in the thalamus and its subregions using multimodal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and examined its clinical relevance in tinnitus patients with different outcomes after sound therapy (narrowband noise)., Methods: In total, 60 patients with persistent tinnitus and 57 healthy controls (HCs) were recruited. Based on treatment efficacy, 28 patients were categorized into the effective group and 32 into the ineffective group. Five MRI measurements of the thalamus and its seven subregions, including gray matter volume, fractional anisotropy, fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation, and functional connectivity (FC), were obtained for each participant and compared between the groups., Results: Patients in both the groups exhibited widespread functional and diffusion abnormalities in the whole thalamus and several subregions, with more obvious changes observed in the effective group. All tinnitus patients had abnormal FC compared with the HCs; FC differences between the two patient groups were only observed in the striatal network, auditory-related cortex, and the core area of the limbic system. We combined the multimodal quantitative thalamic alterations and used it as an imaging indicator to evaluate prognosis before sound therapy and achieved a sensitivity of 71.9% and a specificity of 85.7%., Conclusion: Similar patterns of thalamic alterations were identified in tinnitus patients with different outcomes, with more obvious changes observed in the effective group. Our findings support the tinnitus generation hypothesis of frontostriatal gating system dysfunction. A combination of multimodal quantitative thalamic properties may be used as indicators to predict tinnitus prognosis before sound therapy., (© 2023 The Authors. CNS Neuroscience & Therapeutics Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Objectives: To investigate the imaging features of unilateral pulsatile tinnitus (PT) with jugular bulb wall dehiscence (JBWD)., Methods: Computerized tomography angiography images of unilateral PT patients were reviewed between 2019 and 2021. Thirty-one symptomatic JBWD patients without sigmoid sinus wall dehiscence (SSWD) were included. Thirty-eight patients with SSWD were used as the control group. The prevalence of JBWD was calculated. The area and height of the jugular bulb, the extent of dehiscence, the presence of jugular bulb diverticulum, posterior condylar emissary vein (PCEV), oblique occipital sinus (OOS), venous outflow laterality (VOL), the degree of transverse sinus stenosis (TSS), and the pituitary height to sella turcica ratio were compared between the two groups., Results: The prevalence of JBWD was 12.1%, and JBWD was established as a causative diagnosis in 5.0% of unilateral PT patients. There were no statistical differences in the gender, symptomatic side, or VOL between the two groups. The area of the jugular bulb was larger and the height was higher (p area < 0.001, p height = 0.005). The prevalence of jugular bulb diverticulum was higher in the JBWD group (p = 0.002). The degree of symptomatic TSS was less severe (p < 0.001), and the prevalence of bilateral TSS was lower in the JBWD group (p < 0.001). The pituitary height to sella turcica ratio was greater (p = 0.004), the prevalence of PCEV (p = 0.014) was lower, and OOS (p = 0.015) was greater in the JBWD group., Conclusions: The correlating factors of PT with JBWD and PT with SSWD are significantly different. These findings can further facilitate early and efficient PT treatment., Key Points: • The incidence of jugular bulb dehiscence (JBWD) accounted for approximately 12.1% in pulsatile tinnitus (PT) patients, and JBWD was established as a causative diagnosis in 5.0% of PT patients. • PT required large blood flows and abnormal flow patterns, whether in JBWD or sigmoid sinus wall dehiscence groups. • JBWD causing PT has some unique characteristic findings on CT., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to European Society of Radiology.)

Background: Transverse sinus stenosis (TSS) is commonly found in Pulsatile Tinnitus (PT) patients. Vortex flow is prominent in venous sinus with stenosis, and so it is important to determine the distribution and strength of the vortical flow to understand its influence on the occurrence of PT., Methods: In this study, by using computational fluid dynamics for hemodynamic analysis in patient-specific geometries based on Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), we have investigated the blood flow within the venous sinus of 16 subjects with PT. We have employed both laminar and turbulent flow models for simulations, to obtain (i) streamlines of velocity distribution in the venous sinus, and (ii) pressure distributions of flow patterns in the venous sinus. Then, hemodynamic analysis in the venous sinus recirculation zone was carried out, to determine the flow patterns at the junction of transverse sinuses and sigmoid sinuses. Finally, we have proposed a new model for turbulence evaluation based on the regression analysis of anatomic and hemodynamics parameters., Results: Correlation analysis between the anatomical parameters and the hemodynamic parameters has shown that stenosis at the transverse sinus was the main factor in the local hemodynamics variation in the venous sinus of patients; in this context, it is shown that vorticity can be used as a prime indicator of the severity of the stenosis function. Our results have shown a significant correlation between the vorticity and the stenotic maximum velocity (SMV) (r = 0.282, p = 0.004). Then, a parameterized prediction model is proposed to determine the vorticity in terms of flow and anatomic variables, termed as the turbulence eddy prediction model (TEP model). Our result have shown that the TEP model is sensitive to the dominant flow distribution, with a high correlation to the flow-based vorticity (r = 0.809, p = 0.009)., Conclusions: The quantification of the vorticity (as both vorticity and MVV) in the downstream of TSS could be a marker for indication of turbulent energy at the transverse-sigmoid sinus, which could potentially serve as a hemodynamic marker for the functional assessment of the PT-related TSS., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Background: Given the increasing number of people suffering from tinnitus, the accurate categorization of patients with actionable reports is attractive in assisting clinical decision making. However, this process requires experienced physicians and significant human labor. Natural language processing (NLP) has shown great potential in big data analytics of medical texts; yet, its application to domain-specific analysis of radiology reports is limited., Objective: The aim of this study is to propose a novel approach in classifying actionable radiology reports of tinnitus patients using bidirectional encoder representations from transformer BERT-based models and evaluate the benefits of in domain pre-training (IDPT) along with a sequence adaptation strategy., Methods: A total of 5864 temporal bone computed tomography(CT) reports are labeled by two experienced radiologists as follows: (1) normal findings without notable lesions; (2) notable lesions but uncorrelated to tinnitus; and (3) at least one lesion considered as potential cause of tinnitus. We then constructed a framework consisting of deep learning (DL) neural networks and self-supervised BERT models. A tinnitus domain-specific corpus is used to pre-train the BERT model to further improve its embedding weights. In addition, we conducted an experiment to evaluate multiple groups of max sequence length settings in BERT to reduce the excessive quantity of calculations. After a comprehensive comparison of all metrics, we determined the most promising approach through the performance comparison of F1-scores and AUC values., Results: In the first experiment, the BERT finetune model achieved a more promising result (AUC-0.868, F1-0.760) compared with that of the Word2Vec-based models(AUC-0.767, F1-0.733) on validation data. In the second experiment, the BERT in-domain pre-training model (AUC-0.948, F1-0.841) performed significantly better than the BERT based model(AUC-0.868, F1-0.760). Additionally, in the variants of BERT fine-tuning models, Mengzi achieved the highest AUC of 0.878 (F1-0.764). Finally, we found that the BERT max-sequence-length of 128 tokens achieved an AUC of 0.866 (F1-0.736), which is almost equal to the BERT max-sequence-length of 512 tokens (AUC-0.868,F1-0.760)., Conclusion: In conclusion, we developed a reliable BERT-based framework for tinnitus diagnosis from Chinese radiology reports, along with a sequence adaptation strategy to reduce computational resources while maintaining accuracy. The findings could provide a reference for NLP development in Chinese radiology reports., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Background: To explore potential causes leading to the failure of the surgical reconstruction of sigmoid sinus wall in patients with pulsatile tinnitus., Methods: This study retrospectively analyzed pulsatile tinnitus patients with sigmoid sinus wall dehiscence and/or sigmoid sinus diverticulum, who underwent revision surgeries following the surgical reconstruction of the sigmoid sinus wall., Results: A total of 7 pulsatile tinnitus patients were included. After the first surgery, 5 of 7 patients showed varying degrees of remission in pulsatile tinnitus, but pulsatile tinnitus gradually recurred. The other 2 patients experienced no change in pulsatile tinnitus. Images after the first surgeries revealed that the surgical failure of Patients 1-5 was caused by incompleted elimination of sigmoid sinus wall dehiscence and sigmoid sinus diverticulum. Following revision surgeries, they all acquired great or complete resolution of pulsatile tinnitus. In Patient 6, an abnormal diploic vein entering the sigmoid sinus was overlooked during the first surgery for repairing sigmoid sinus wall dehiscence. As soon as the diploic vein was blocked during the revision surgery, the patient's pulsatile tinnitus was alleviated significantly. Patient 7 had a recurrence of pulsatile tinnitus after transient improvement following the first surgery, and still experienced no change in pulsatile tinnitus after the revision surgery. However, after venous sinus stenting in the stenosis of transverse-sigmoid sinus junction, she got complete resolution of pulsatile tinnitus. It sug- gested that the unresolved stenosis of the venous sinus was the cause of the surgical failure., Conclusions: Both sigmoid sinus diverticulum and sigmoid sinus wall dehiscence are recommended to be resolved during surgery. Abnormal diploic veins and venous sinus stenosis are potential causes of pulsatile tinnitus.

Topological properties, which serve as the core of the neural network, and their couplings can reflect different therapeutic effects in tinnitus patients. We hypothesized that tinnitus patients with different outcomes after sound therapy (narrowband noise) would have distinct brain network topological alterations. Diffusion tensor imaging and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) were prospectively performed in 60 patients with idiopathic tinnitus and 57 healthy controls (HCs). Graph-theoretical network analyses of structural connectivity (SC), functional connectivity (FC), and SC and FC coupling were performed. Associations between clinical performance and graph-theoretical features were also analyzed. Treatment was effective (effective group; EG) in 28 patients and ineffective (ineffective group; IG) in 32 patients. For FC, the patients in the EG showed higher local efficiency than patients in the IG. For SC, patients in both the EG and IG displayed lower normalized characteristic path length, characteristic path length, and global efficiency than the HCs. More importantly, patients in the IG had higher coupling than the HCs, whereas there was no difference in coupling between patients in the EG and HCs. Additionally, there were significant associations between the SC features and clinical performance in patients in the EG. Our findings demonstrate that tinnitus patients exhibited significant brain network topological alterations, especially in the structural brain network. More importantly, patients who demonstrated different curative effects showed distinct SC-FC topological coupling properties. SC-FC coupling could be an indicator that could be used to predict prognoses in patients with idiopathic tinnitus before sound therapy., (© 2022 The Authors. Human Brain Mapping published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Sigmoid sinus wall dehiscence (SSWD) is a common pathophysiology of patients with pulsatile tinnitus (PT). However, the pathological mechanism of SSWD is unclear. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between the position of the SSWD and blood flow pattern of the transverse sinus and sigmoid sinus (TS-SS) junction. The impact of the blood flow was hypothesized to be the pathological mechanism of SSWD. Twenty patients and two healthy volunteers were analyzed retrospectively, and transient computer fluid dynamics was used to verify this hypothesis. A 4D flow magnetic resonance imaging experiment was performed to validate the numerical simulation. The position of high-velocity blood flow impacting the vessel wall (17/20) was consistent with SSWD. In healthy volunteers, the temporal bone was thin where the blood flow impacted the blood vessel wall. The average wall shear stress (20/20) and pressure (18/20) of the SSWD area (peak) were higher than those of sigmoid sinus wall anomalies (the contact area between the vessel wall and the temporal bone at the TS-SS junction). The average wall pressure percentage differences of 16/20, 11/20, and 4/20 patients were more than 5%, 10%, and 20%, respectively. The average wall shear stress percentage differences of 20/20, 18/20, and 16/20 patients were more than 5%, 10%, and 20%, respectively. In brief, the blood flow of the TS-SS junction impacted the vessel wall and increased wall pressure, which might be an important pathological mechanism of SSWD. This study could serve as a basis for the diagnosis and SSWD resurfacing surgery of patients with PT induced by SSWD., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background and Objective: Coil embolization has become a new treatment method for pulsatile tinnitus (PT) caused by sigmoid sinus diverticulum (SSD). Although this therapy has achieved good results in clinical reports, the hemodynamic mechanism of coils in the treatment of PT in SSD remained unclear., Methods: Finite element method (FEM) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) were combined to explore the hemodynamic mechanism of coil embolization in SSD treatment. Three personalized geometric models of sigmoid sinus were established according to the CTA data of patients. Coil model were established by FEM, and the hemodynamic differences of SSD before and after coiling were compared by transient CFD method., Results: Velocity streamlines disappeared in the SSD after coiling. At the peak time (t1 = 0.22 s), the SSD-average velocity decreased in every patient. The average value of the decreased in three patients was 0.154 ± 0.028 m/s (mean ± SD). Wall average pressure (P avg ) also showed a decline in every patient. Average of decrements of three patients was 17.69 ± 4.91 Pa (mean ± SD). Average WSS (WSS avg ) was also reduced in every patient. The average value of WSS drop was 9.74 ± 3.02 Pa (mean ± SD). After coiling, the proportion of low-velocity region in the sigmoid sinus cortical plate dehiscence (SSCPD) area increased. Average of increments was 22.1 ± 5.36% (mean ± SD)., Conclusions: A reduction in SSD-average velocity, wall pressure, and WSS were the short-term hemodynamic mechanism of coil embolization for PT. Coil embolization increased the proportion of low-velocity region in the SSCPD area, thereby creating a hemodynamic environment that easily produced thrombus and protects blood vessels from the impact of blood flow. This phenomenon was the long-term effect of coil embolization., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: Intracranial dural arteriovenous fistula (DAVF) can cause pulsatile tinnitus (PT). The purpose of this study was to investigate the diagnostic performance of dual-phase contrast-enhanced CT (DP-CECT) for DAVF in PT patients compared with digital subtraction angiography (DSA)., Method: From February 2015 to April 2021, PT patients undergoing routine DSA examination were prospectively analyzed. Patients with and without DAVF diagnosed by DSA were included. In DP-CECT, the radiological signs related to DAVF were assessed as follows: asymmetric external carotid artery (ECA) branches, asymmetric enhancement of intracranial or extracranial veins, asymmetric venous collaterals in extracranial space, and shaggy tentorium or venous sinus on CTA; asymmetric enhancement of intracranial or extracranial veins on CTV; numerous transcalvarial channels and asymmetric size of foramen spinosum on high-resolution CT (HRCT)., Results: 253 PT patients receiving DSA were enrolled, and these patients had previously been screened by DP-CECT. Forty-six patients were diagnosed as DAVF by DSA. Therefore, the prevalence of DAVF was 18% (46/253) in patients with PT as the initial symptom. The sensitivity and specificity of DP-CECT for diagnosis of DAVF were 96% and 100%. The sensitivity of individual CTA signs ranged from 65% to 93%, and specificities ranged from 83% to 100%. The sensitivity of CTV sign was 80%, and specificity was 100%. The sensitivity of individual HRCT signs ranged from 48 to 52% and specificities from 61 to 100%., Conclusions: DAVF is not rare in patients with PT as the initial symptom. DP-CECT can be used for screening DAVF in patients with PT., (Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Idiopathic tinnitus can cause significant auditory-related brain structural and functional changes in patients. However, changes in patterns of the lateralization effects in idiopathic tinnitus have yet to be established, especially on white matter (WM) reorganization. In this study, we studied 19 left-sided and 19 right-sided idiopathic tinnitus (LSIT, RSIT) patients and 19 healthy controls (HCs). We combined applied voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) analyses to investigate altered features of the auditory-related brain WM. We also conducted correlation analyses between the clinical variables and WM changes in the patients. Compared with the HCs, both sided tinnitus patients showed significant auditory-related brain WM alterations. More interestingly, the LSIT patients demonstrated a greater decrease in white matter volume (WMV) in the right medial superior frontal gyrus (SFG) than the RSIT; meanwhile, we also found that compared with the RSIT group, the LSIT group showed significantly increased fractional anisotropy (FA) in the body of the corpus callosum (CC), left cingulum, and right superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF) and decreased mean diffusivity (MD) in the body of CC. Moreover, relative to the RSIT group, the LSIT group also exhibited increases in WM axial diffusivity (AD) in the left SLF, left cingulum, right middle cerebellar peduncle (MCP), left thalamus, and bilateral forceps major (FM) and decreases in radial diffusivity (RD) in the genu of CC. Additionally, the FA value of the right SLF was closely associated with tinnitus severity in the LSIT. Our study suggests that lateralization has a significant effect on WM reorganization in patients with idiopathic tinnitus; in particular, LSIT patients may experience more severe and widespread alterations in WMV and WM microstructure than the RSIT group, and all these changes are indirectly auditory related. These findings provide new useful information that can lead to a better understanding of the tinnitus mechanisms., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Patients with pulsatile tinnitus (PT) have unstable treatment effects after resurfacing surgery. Flow-diverting stents (FDS) are proposed as a potential method for the treatment of PT, but the therapeutic effect is not clear. This study aimed to investigate the efficacy of FDS in the treatment of patients with PT induced by sigmoid sinus diverticulum (SSD) and sigmoid sinus wall dehiscence (SSWD). In addition, we aimed to explore the treatment mechanism of PT. Transient-state multiphysics coupling numerical simulation method based on computed tomography angiography of five patients was used to clarify the biomechanical and acoustic states before and after FDS placement. FDS was placed to prevent the blood flow from impacting the vessel wall in the SSD and SSWD areas. Low blood flow velocity (<0.0391 m/s), high relative residence time (>10 Pa -1 ), and low wall shear stress of SSD might lead to thrombosis after FDS placement. The average pressure on the SSWD area of each patient decreased by 13.77%, 18.82%, 29.23%, 19.03%, and 11.20%. The average displacement of the vessel wall on the SSWD area showed acute pulsation and decreased by 15.29%, 14.64%, 30.22%, 41.03%, and 21.28%. The average sound pressure level at the tympanum decreased by 14.01%, 9.33%, 17.66%, 18.88%, and 25.18%, respectively. In brief, FDS was placed to avoid blood flow impacting vessels and reduce the vibration of vessels in the short term, thereby attenuating the degree of PT. The long-term prognosis was that the SSWD area was blocked after SSD thrombosis. Therefore, FDS might be an effective method for the treatment of PT induced by SSD and SSWD. This study would provide a theoretical basis for the treatment of PT and an exploration of FDS design in the treatment of PT., (© 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Previous studies demonstrated that brain morphological differences and distinct patterns of neural activation exist in tinnitus patients with different prognoses after sound therapy. This study aimed to explore possible differences in intrinsic network-level functional connectivity (FC) in patients with different outcomes after sound therapy (narrow band noise). We examined intrinsic FC using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging in 78 idiopathic tinnitus patients (including 35 effectively treated and 43 ineffectively treated) and 52 healthy controls (HCs) via independent component analysis. We also investigated the associations between the differences in FC and clinical variables. Analyses revealed significantly altered intranetwork connectivity in the auditory network (AUN) and some nonauditory-related networks in the EG/IG patients compared to HCs; compared with EG patients, IG patients showed decreased intranetwork connectivity in the anterior default mode network (aDMN) and AUN. Meanwhile, robust differences were also evident in internetwork connectivity between some nonauditory-related networks (salience network and executive control network; posterior default mode network and dorsal attention network) in the EG relative to IG patients. We combined intranetwork connectivity in the aDMN and AUN as an imaging indicator to evaluate patient outcomes and screen patients before treatment; this approach reached a sensitivity of 94.3% and a specificity of 76.7%. Our study suggests that tinnitus patients with different outcomes show distinct network-level functional reorganization patterns. Intranetwork connectivity in the aDMN and AUN may be indicators that can be used to predict prognoses in patients with idiopathic tinnitus and screen patients before sound therapy., (© 2021 The Authors. Human Brain Mapping published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

The functional connectivity of the auditory network is considered to be important in the development of tinnitus. We hypothesized that sound therapy, as a commonly used effective treatment for tinnitus, can modulate the functional connectivity of the auditory network. In this prospective observational study, we recruited 27 tinnitus patients who had undergone 12 weeks of sound therapy and 27 matched healthy controls. For the two groups of subjects, resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging was acquired both at baseline and at the 12th week. We utilized independent component analysis and seed-based functional connectivity analysis to characterize the connectivity features of the auditory network. Interaction effects between the two groups and the two scans within the auditory network were observed, which were driven by increased functional connectivity in the left primary auditory cortex (PAC) and decreased values in the secondary auditory cortex (SAC) in tinnitus patients after treatment. Increased connections between the auditory network and limbic network, as well as decreased values with the bilateral thalami, were identified. The effects were mainly driven by the functional connectivity alterations of the SAC rather than that of the PAC. Significant positive correlations between the percent improvement in the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI) score and the percentage change rates of functional connectivity between the SAC and bilateral thalami were observed. Our study contributes to the understanding of the mechanism of tinnitus and effective sound therapy, providing evidence to support the theory of a gain adaptation mechanism that quantifies the recovered gating function of the thalamus in tinnitus patients., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The effects of morphologic abnormalities, including sigmoid sinus wall dehiscence (SSWD), transverse sinus stenosis (TSS), and sigmoid sinus diverticulum (SSD), on hemodynamics in venous pulsatile tinnitus (PT) patients have not been established. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of SSWD, TSS, and SSD on the hemodynamics of transverse-sigmoid sinus in venous PT patients. This was a prospective study with 44 venous PT patients and 12 healthy controls. A 3 T/four-dimensional (4D) flow magnetic resonance imaging with fast field echo was used. Computed tomography arteriography/venography was used to assess ipsilateral SSWD, TSS, and SSD. Maximum velocity (V max ), average velocity (V avg ), and average flow (Flow avg ) were measured. Blood flow patterns were independently assessed by three neuroradiologists. One-way analysis of variance or Kruskal-Wallis test was also used. On the symptomatic side, all patients had SSWD, 33 patients had TSS, and 22 patients had SSD. Compared with healthy controls, patients with TSS, without TSS, with SSD, and without SSD all showed higher V max (all p < 0.050), V avg (all p < 0.050), and Flow avg (all p < 0.050). Patients with TSS showed higher V max (p < 0.050) and V avg (p < 0.050) than those without TSS, and no significant difference in Flow avg was found between the two groups (p = 0.408). No significant differences in V max , V avg , and Flow avg were found between patients with and without SSD (all p = 1.000). Jet-like flow in the stenosis and downstream of the stenosis was observed in all patients with TSS. Vortex in SSD was observed in 15 patients with SSD (68%). High blood velocity and flow may be characteristic markers of venous PT. SSWD may be a necessary condition for venous PT. TSS may further increase the blood velocity and form a jet-like flow. SSD may be related to vortex formation but had no significant effect on blood velocity and flow. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 2 TECHNICAL EFFICACY STAGE: 3., (© 2021 The Authors. Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging published by Wiley Periodicals LLC. on behalf of International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.)

Objectives: To investigate the correlation between transverse sinus stenosis (TSS) and transstenotic pressure gradient (TPG) in unilateral pulsatile tinnitus (PT) patients with sigmoid sinus wall anomalies (SSWA)., Methods: Fifty-seven patients with unilateral venous PT were retrospectively included. All of them underwent CT venography and catheter manometry, accompanied with SSWA. The degree, length, shape (intrinsic/extrinsic/dysplasia), location (proximal/middle/distal, referring to the relative position of TSS and the Labbé vein junction) of TSS, the types of SSWA (dehiscence/diverticulum), and the degree of transverse sinus outflow laterality were assessed, and the correlations with ipsilesional TPG were analyzed., Results: The mean value of ipsilesional TPG was 7.61 ± 0.52 mmHg. The degree and length of ipsilesional TSS were positively correlated with TPG (p < 0.001, p' < 0.001), respectively. TPG was significantly larger in patients with contralateral transverse sinus dysplasia than those without (p = 0.023) and significantly smaller in patients with ipsilesional sigmoid sinus diverticulum than those with isolated dehiscence (p = 0.001). No statistical difference in TPG was shown between ipsilesional TSSs of different shapes or locations (p > 0.05). No correlation was noted between the degree of ipsilesional transverse sinus outflow laterality and TPG (p = 0.051). Stepwise linear regression indicated that the degree (β = 9.207, 95% CI = 3.558-14.856), length (β = 0.122, 95% CI = 0.025-0.220) of ipsilesional TSS, and contralateral transverse sinus dysplasia (β = 1.875, 95% CI = 0.220-3.530) were significantly correlated with TPG (R 2  = 0.471)., Conclusions: The degree, length of ipsilesional TSS, and contralateral transverse sinus dysplasia may be used to predict TPG in unilateral PT patients with SSWA., Key Points: • CT venography may act as a screening tool to help low-probability unilateral pulsatile tinnitus (PT) patients with sigmoid sinus wall anomalies (SSWA) avoid invasive catheter manometry. • The degree and length of ipsilesional transverse sinus stenosis (TSS) are positively correlated with transtenotic pressure gradient (TPG) in unilateral PT patients with SSWA. • Ipsilesional TPG is larger in unilateral PT patients with contralateral transverse sinus dysplasia than those without and is smaller in unilateral PT patients with sigmoid sinus diverticulum than those with isolated dehiscence.

Objectives: Abnormal neuronal activity and functional connectivity have been reported in patients with venous pulsatile tinnitus (PT). As neuronal activity is closely coupled to regional brain perfusion, the purpose of this study was to investigate the cerebral blood flow (CBF) alterations in patients with unilateral venous PT using arterial spin labeling (ASL)., Methods: This study included patients with right-sided PT between January 2018 and July 2019. A healthy control (HC) group matched 1:1 for gender and age was also recruited. All subjects underwent ASL scanning using 3.0T MRI. The correlation between altered CBF and Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI) score as well as PT duration was analyzed., Results: Twenty-one patients with right-sided PT and 21 HCs were included. The mean PT duration of the patients was 35.9 ± 32.2 months, and the mean THI score was 64.1 ± 20.3. Compared with the HCs, the PT patients exhibited increased CBF in the left inferior parietal gyrus and decreased CBF in the bilateral lingual gyrus (family-wise error corrected, p < 0.05). The increased CBF in the left inferior parietal gyrus showed a positive correlation with the THI score in PT patients ( r = 0.501, p = 0.021)., Conclusions: PT patients exhibit regional CBF alterations. The increased CBF in the left inferior parietal gyrus may reflect the severity of PT., Advances in Knowledge: This study not only presents evidence for the potential neuropathology of PT from the perspective of CBF alterations but also offers a new method for investigating the neuropathological mechanism of PT.

This study aimed to explore brain structural and white matter microstructural reorganization in the early stage of tinnitus and identify brain alterations that contribute to its relief after 6 months of sound therapy. We studied 64 patients with idiopathic tinnitus, including 29 patients who were categorized into an effective group (EG) and 35 who were categorized into an ineffective group (IG) according to the 6-month follow-up improvement of the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory score, along with 63 healthy controls (HCs). All participants underwent structural and diffusion tensor imaging scanning on a 3-T magnetic resonance system. Differences in brain gray/white matter volume and white matter microstructure were evaluated using voxel-based morphometry analysis and tract-based spatial statistics among the three groups. Associations between brain reorganization and the improvement of tinnitus symptoms were also investigated. Compared with EG patients, IG patients experienced a significant gray matter volume decrease in the right middle frontal gyrus (MFG)/right precentral gyrus (PreCG). Meanwhile, both EG and IG patients showed significant changes (decrease or increase) in brain white matter integrity in the auditory-related or nonauditory-related white matter fiber tracts compared with HCs, while EG patients showed decreased axial diffusivity in the bilateral middle cerebellar peduncle (MCP) compared with IG patients. We combined the gray matter change of the MFG/PreCG and the white matter integrity of the bilateral MCP as an imaging indicator to evaluate the patient's prognosis and screen patients before treatment; this approach reached a sensitivity of 77.1% and a specificity of 82.8%. Our study suggests that there was a close relationship between brain reorganization and tinnitus improvement. The right MFG/PreCG and bilateral MCP may be indicators that can be used to predict prognoses in patients with idiopathic tinnitus and may be used to screen patients before sound therapy. These findings may provide new useful information that can lead to a better understanding of the tinnitus mechanism., (© 2020 The Authors. Human Brain Mapping published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Purpose: To investigate the relevant factors of unilateral pulsatile tinnitus (PT) in patients with idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) using CT., Methods: CT angiography images of IIH patients with unilateral PT (n = 19), without PT (n = 13), and controls (n = 32) were reviewed. The characteristics including transverse sinus stenosis (TSS), venous outflow laterality (VOL), sigmoid sinus wall dehiscence (SSWD), and sigmoid sinus diverticulum (SSD) were quantitatively or/and qualitatively detected. VOL was compared between the symptomatic side of IIH patients with PT and the larger side of IIH patients without PT and the controls. TSS, SSWD, and SSD were compared between the symptomatic side of IIH patients with PT, and both sides of the latter two groups., Results: There was no statistical difference in body mass index or cerebrospinal fluid pressure between IIH patients with and without PT. The prevalence of TSS was significantly higher in IIH patients than that in the controls (p = 0.000), but TSS had no correlation with PT within IIH patients. The prevalence of SSWD successively decreased in IIH patients with PT, without PT, and the controls, with significant differences between each two of three groups (p = 0.000, p' = 0.000, p″ = 0.031). The proportion of VOL and the prevalence of SSD were significantly larger in IIH patients with PT than in the latter groups respectively (p VOL  = 0.005, p' VOL  = 0.000; p SSD  = 0.040, p' SSD  = 0.000). All SSDs in IIH patients with PT were accompanied with SSWD., Conclusion: The dominant VOL and ipsilateral SSWD with/without SSD may be correlated with the occurrence of unilateral PT in IIH patients.

Sigmoid sinus diverticulum (SSD) is a common pathophysiology of pulsatile tinnitus (PT) and mainly treated by SSD reconstruction surgery. The degree of reconstruction is an important indicator of SSD reconstruction surgery, but its impact on the effect of SSD reconstruction is unclear. This study aimed to clarify the effect of the degree of SSD reconstruction on diverticulum reconstruction surgical treatment. One patient-specific case (control subject) was reconstructed based on the computed tomography angiography (CTA) images of patients with PT. The SSD reconstruction degree was used as a new index in this study. And the case of 30% (case 1), 60% (case 2), and 100% (case 3) of the diverticulum reconstruction degree of control subject were constructed. Transient-state computational fluid dynamics was performed. Wall pressure distribution, wall average pressure (P avg ) of SSD, flow pattern (velocity streamlines and velocity vector), wall shear stress (WSS) and averaged WSS (WSS avg ) were calculated and used in evaluating the hemodynamic differences among the DRD cases. Results demonstrated that change in SSD pressure was not linear with increase in DRD. The DRD that reached 60% of the original diverticulum was effective. At the peak point of the inlet boundary condition (T1 = 0.22s), the P avg of SSD had a nonlinear change (control subject, 126.967 Pa vs. case 1, 126.274 Pa vs. case 2, 106.897 Pa vs. case 3, 94.116 Pa). Flow vorticity decreased gradually, and the smoothness of the streamlines increased with DRD. WSS avg slightly changed with increasing DRD. The high-speed flow blood hit the diverticulum entrance and then swirled to hit the area of the sigmoid sinus wall abnormal. It was concluded that flow patterns related to PT differ with DRD. In diverticulum reconstruction surgery, there is a threshold value, and only when the DRD exceeds this value (60% or 70% or 80%), it will have a noticeable effect. In this study, DRD should at least reach 60% of the original diverticulum. When DRD is insufficient, hemodynamic change in the diverticulum is small, and the PT may have remained. SSD may be caused by high-speed blood flow., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest None., (Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Altered functional connectivity (FC) of the thalamus has been proven to be an important finding in tinnitus patients. Tinnitus can be effectively desensitized by sound therapy. However, it is still unclear whether and how sound therapy affects the FC of the thalamus. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data and anatomical data were longitudinally collected from 25 idiopathic tinnitus patients before and after 12 weeks of sound therapy by using adjusted narrow band noise and from 25 matched healthy controls at the same time interval without any intervention. The FC of bilateral thalami were analyzed by setting the left and right thalamus as the regions of interest. Significant main effect of group on the FC of the thalamus were found mainly in the key components of the default mode network, limbic network, salience network, cognitive control network, auditory network and occipital region. FC values between the thalamus, inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) featured higher values in the tinnitus group at baseline compared to the healthy controls and restoration in tinnitus patients after treatment. Decreased Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI) scores and decreased FC values between the right thalamus and right IFG were positively correlated (r = 0.476, P = 0.016). Abnormal FC of the thalamus is associated with multiple brain networks. Sound therapy has a normalizing effect on the enhanced FC of the thalamus-IFG and thalamus-ACC, representing decreased tinnitus attention control and less involvement of the noise-canceling system.

Sigmoid sinus wall anomalies (SSWA) are a common pathophysiology of pulsatile tinnitus (PT) and usually treated by sigmoid sinus wall dehiscence (SSWD) resurfacing surgery. However, symptoms of tinnitus remain unrelieved after surgery in some patients with PT, and even new tinnitus appears. The cause of the difference in therapeutic effects is unclear. In this study, eight patient-specific SSWA geometric models were reconstructed on the basis of computed tomography angiography, including four cases of postoperative rehabilitation (group 1, 1-4 cases) and four cases of non-rehabilitation (group 2, 5-8 cases). Transient-state computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was performed to clarify the SS blood flow pattern and hemodynamic states. The wall pressure distribution on SSWA area, pressure difference, and flow pattern in SS were calculated to evaluate the hemodynamic changes of rehabilitation and non-rehabilitation patients before and after surgery. The difference of hemodynamics between these patients was statistically analyzed. The accuracy of CFD simulation was evaluated by cross validating the numerical and particle image velocimetry experimental results. Results showed that the SSWA area in patients with PT was loaded with high pressure. No difference was found in the hemodynamic characteristics between the two groups pre- and postoperation. When the average pressure (P avg ) and time-average P avg (TAP avg ) on the SSWA area were studied, the TAP avg difference pre- and postoperation between the two groups was found significant (p = 0.0021). The TAP avg difference had a negative change in postoperative rehabilitation patients (case 1, -44.49 Pa vs. case 2, -15.85 Pa vs. case 3, -25.88 Pa vs. case 4, -16.58 Pa). The postoperative TAP avg of non-rehabilitation patients was higher than the preoperative one (case 5, 24.70 Pa vs. case 6, 28.56 Pa vs. case 7, 5.81 Pa vs. case 8, 13.04 Pa). The velocity streamlines in the SS with rehabilitation became smoother and more regular than that without rehabilitation. By contrast, the velocity streamlines in SS without rehabilitation showed increased twisting and curling. No difference was found in time-average volume-averaged vorticity (TAV avg V) between the two groups. Therefore, the high pressure of the vessel wall on SSWA area was one of the causes of PT. The variation of SSWA wall pressure difference before and after PT was the cause of the difference in therapeutic effects after SSWD resurfacing surgery. In patients with SSWA, disordered blood flow in SS was another cause of PT. SSWD repair may relieve tinnitus to some extent, but blood flow disorders may still arise., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competin Interest None., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Objective: This study is to investigate the hemodynamic changes of pulsatile tinnitus (PT) patients induced by sigmoid sinus wall anomalies (SSWA)., Study Design: Prospective study., Setting: Tertiary referral university hospital., Patients: Fifteen unilateral PT patients with SSWA identified on computed tomography images and surgery and 15 age-, sex-, and body mass index-matched healthy volunteers underwent velocity-encoded, cine magnetic resonance imaging., Intervention: Hemodynamic data in sigmoid sinus were obtained from velocity-encoded, cine magnetic resonance imaging, and compared between PT patients and controls., Main Outcome Measures: Heart rate was recorded. Cross-sectional area (CSA), peak positive velocity (PPV), average positive flow volume per beat (APFV/beat), average flow volume per beat (AFV/beat), peak negative velocity (PNV), and average negative flow volume per beat (ANFV/beat) were measured. Average flow volume per minute (AFV/min), average positive flow volume per minute (APFV/min), average negative flow volume per minute (ANFV/min), average positive velocity (APV), average negative velocity (ANV), and regurgitation fraction (RF) were calculated., Results: APV at PT side of patients was 13.4 ± 3.3 cm/s, which was significantly slower than that at corresponding side of controls (15.8 ± 2.6 cm/s). PNV and RF at PT side of patients were 21.0 ± 15.4 cm/s and 2.4% respectively, which were significantly higher than those values at corresponding side of controls (both of them were 0). HR, CSA, PPV, APFV/beat, APFV/min, AFV/beat, AFV/min, ANV, ANFV/beat, and ANFV/min were 69.8 ± 9.4 beat/min, 48.4 ± 17 mm, 31.4 ± 5.9 cm/s, 5.4 ± 1.8 ml/beat, 373.9 ± 117.7 ml/min, 5.1 ± 2.0 ml/beat, 352.0 ± 134.6 ml/min, 2 (0-4.9) cm/s, 1 (0-2.7) ml/beat, and 4.1 (0-141.3) ml/min at PT side of patients, and 67.4 ± 7.8 beat/min, 38.2 ± 18 mm, 29.9 ± 3.9 cm/s, 5.3 ± 2.0 ml/beat, 350.3 ± 125.3 ml/min, 5.1 ± 1.9 ml/beat, 340.5 ± 117.9 ml/min, 0 (0-2.1) cm/s, 0 (0-0.8) ml/beat, and 0 (0-55.4) ml/min at corresponding side of controls. These hemodynamics were not significantly different between groups., Conclusion: APV, PNV, and RF changes take place in SSWA patients, which may be associated with the occurrence of PT and have the potential value to improve accurate etiological diagnosis and predict treatment success.

According to previous studies, many neuroanatomical alterations have been detected in patients with tinnitus. However, the results of these studies have been inconsistent. The objective of this study was to explore the cortical/subcortical morphological neuroimaging biomarkers that may characterize idiopathic tinnitus using machine learning methods. Forty-six patients with idiopathic tinnitus and fifty-six healthy subjects were included in this study. For each subject, the gray matter volume of 61 brain regions was extracted as an original feature pool. From this feature pool, a hybrid feature selection algorithm combining the F -score and sequential forward floating selection (SFFS) methods was performed to select features. Then, the selected features were used to train a support vector machine (SVM) model. The area under the curve (AUC) and accuracy were used to assess the performance of the classification model. As a result, a combination of 13 cortical/subcortical brain regions was found to have the highest classification accuracy for effectively differentiating patients with tinnitus from healthy subjects. These brain regions include the bilateral hypothalamus, right insula, bilateral superior temporal gyrus, left rostral middle frontal gyrus, bilateral inferior temporal gyrus, right inferior parietal lobule, right transverse temporal gyrus, right middle temporal gyrus, right cingulate gyrus, and left superior frontal gyrus. The accuracy in the training and test datasets was 80.49% and 80.00%, respectively, and the AUC was 0.8586. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to elucidate brain morphological changes in patients with tinnitus by applying an SVM classifier. This study provides validated cortical/subcortical morphological neuroimaging biomarkers to differentiate patients with tinnitus from healthy subjects and contributes to the understanding of neuroanatomical alterations in patients with tinnitus., Competing Interests: The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interests regarding the publication of this paper., (Copyright © 2019 Yawen Liu et al.)

Background: Sigmoid sinus wall reconstruction (SSWR) is a proven effective treatment for pulsatile tinnitus (PT) caused by sigmoid sinus wall dehiscence (SSWD) with or without sigmoid sinus diverticulum (SSD); however, comprehensive analysis of the postoperative imaging manifestations has not yet been reported., Purpose: To analyze temporal bone computed tomography (CT) imaging features following SSWR in patients with PT., Material and Methods: Following SSWR, temporal bone contrast-enhanced high-resolution CT (HRCT) images from 33 PT cases were retrospectively analyzed. Patients were divided into two groups based on follow-up interval: a short-interval group (≤18 months, 12 cases) and a long-interval group (>18 months, 21 cases). The mending material density and morphology was analyzed. Postoperative changes of the venous sinus were evaluated. Imaging manifestations of the normal temporal bone and mastoid air cells adjacent to the operative field were observed., Results: The order of CT values of mending materials was significantly lower in the short-interval group than in the long-interval group (Z = -4.716, P < 0.001); the incidence of complete newly remodeled cortical bone on the rim of the mending materials was significantly higher in the long-interval group than in the short-interval group ( P < 0.001). Eleven patients (33.3%) showed varying degrees of remnant SSWD. The mending materials and normal mastoid bone structure showed complete fusion (n = 12, 36.4%), partial fusion (n = 16, 48.5%), or complete separation (n = 5, 15.2%)., Conclusion: Temporal bone contrast-enhanced HRCT can be used to observe imaging features of the mending materials, venous sinus, adjacent normal temporal bone and mastoid air cells following SSWR.

Purpose: We intend to assess the effectiveness of a novel tinnitus treatment therapy, the Cochleural Alternating Acoustic Beam Therapy (CAABT) using the psychoacoustic measures, the questionnaires and rs-fMRI., Materials and Methods: In this study, we enrolled 11 older than 18 years old Chinese patients with normal hearing who had unilateral, chronic (longer than 6 months), sensorineural tinnitus, of frequencies between 125-8000 Hz, and an average loudness of 31 dB. The patients underwent the treatment with the CAABT method for 12 weeks and the outcomes were evaluated with tinnitus questionnaire scores, a set of psychoacoustic measures, and rs-fMRI testing before treatment and at 3 months. This was an earlier study of the controlled randomized clinical trial which was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT02774122., Results: Almost all the patients reported reduced tinnitus annoyance after the three-month treatment. The THI and VAS scores showed decreased tinnitus severity. The rs-fMRI results indicated that the right middle frontal gyrus and the right superior temporal gyrus displayed noticeable decreases of the ReHo values for the subjects between the before and after treatment, supporting the clinical evidence of significant tinnitus reduction., Conclusion: The therapy seemed effective in patients of varying severities, and no side effects were observed in this trial. The CAABT can be an alternative for those who are suitable for sound therapy once a large scale of and better controlled clinical studies have validated the findings of this experiment., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

During the past several years, the rapid development of neuroimaging techniques has contributed greatly in the noninvasive imaging studies of tinnitus. The aim of the present study was to explore the brain anatomical alterations in patients with right-sided unilateral pulsatile tinnitus (PT) in the early stage of PT symptom using voxel-based morphometry (VBM) analysis. Twenty-four patients with right-sided pulsatile tinnitus and 24 age- and gender-matched normal controls were recruited to this study. Structural image data preprocessing was performed using VBM8 toolbox. Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI) score was acquired in the tinnitus group to assess the severity of tinnitus and tinnitus-related distress. Two-sample t -test and Pearson's correlation analysis were used in statistical analysis. Patients with unilateral pulsatile tinnitus had significantly increased gray matter (GM) volume in bilateral superior temporal gyrus compared with the normal controls. However, the left cerebellum posterior lobe, left frontal superior orbital lobe (gyrus rectus), right middle occipital gyrus (MOG), and bilateral putamen showed significantly decreased brain volumes. This was the first study which demonstrated the features of neuroanatomical changes in patients with unilateral PT during their early stages of the symptom.

Unilateral pulsatile tinnitus (PT) was proved to be a kind of disease with brain functional abnormalities within and beyond the auditory network (AN). However, changes in patterns of the lateralization effects of PT are yet to be established. Relationship between the AN and other brain networks in PT patients is also a scientific question need to be answered. In this study, we recruited 23 left-sided, 23 right-sided PT (LSPT, RSPT) patients and 23 normal controls (NC). We combined applied independent component analysis and seed-based functional connectivity (FC) analysis to investigate alteration feature of the FC of the AN by using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI). Compared with NC, LSPT patients demonstrated disconnected FC within the AN on both sides. Disrupted network integrity between AN and several brain functional networks, including executive control network, self-perceptual network and the limbic network, was also demonstrated in LSPT patient group bilaterally. In contrast, compared with NC, RSPT demonstrated decreased FC within the AN on the left side, but significant increased FC within the AN on the right side (symptomatic side). Enhanced FC between AN and executive control network, self-perceptual network and limbic network was also found mainly on the right side in patients with RSPT. Positive FC between the auditory network and the limbic network may be a reason to explain why RSPT patients are willing to be in the clinic. Briefly, LSPT exhibit disrupted network integrity in brain functional networks. But RSPT is featured by enhanced FC within AN and between networks, especially on the right (symptomatic) side. Corroboration of featured FC helps to reveal the pathophysiological changing process of the brain in patients with PT, providing imaging-based biomarker to distinguish PT from other kind of tinnitus., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

We herein report a newly described cause of venous pulsatile tinnitus: protrusion of an aberrant sylvian vein into the tympanum. A 60-year-old woman presented with a 4-month history of objective persistent pulsatile tinnitus in the right ear with no other complaints. The pulsatile tinnitus diminished with rotation of the head to the right side or by compression of the right cervical vascular structures. The frequency and intensity of the tinnitus were 125 Hz and 20 dB HL, respectively. Audiometry and otoscopic examination findings were normal. Radiologic examination showed that the right sylvian vein protruded into the tympanum through the dehiscent anterior cortical plate of the tympanum.

Abnormal neural activities can be revealed by resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) using analyses of the regional activity and functional connectivity (FC) of the networks in the brain. This study was designed to demonstrate the functional network alterations in the patients with pulsatile tinnitus (PT). In this study, we recruited 45 patients with unilateral PT in the early stage of disease (less than 48 months of disease duration) and 45 normal controls. We used regional homogeneity (ReHo) and seed-based FC computational methods to reveal resting-state brain activity features associated with pulsatile tinnitus. Compared with healthy controls, PT patients showed regional abnormalities mainly in the left middle occipital gyrus (MOG), posterior cingulate gyrus (PCC), precuneus and right anterior insula (AI). When these regions were defined as seeds, we demonstrated widespread modification of interaction between the auditory and non-auditory networks. The auditory network was positively connected with the cognitive control network (CCN), which may associate with tinnitus related distress. Both altered regional activity and changed FC were found in the visual network. The modification of interactions of higher order networks were mainly found in the DMN, CCN and limbic networks. Functional connectivity between the left MOG and left parahippocampal gyrus could also be an index to reflect the disease duration. This study helped us gain a better understanding of the characteristics of neural network modifications in patients with pulsatile tinnitus., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Objective: Previous studies demonstrated altered regional neural activations in several brain areas in patients with pulsatile tinnitus (PT), especially indicating an important role of posterior cingulate cortex (PCC). However, few studies focused on the degree of functional connectivity (FC) of this area in PT patients. In this study, we will compare the FC of PCC in patients affected with this condition and normal controls by using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)., Methods: Structural and functional MRI data were obtained from 36 unilateral PT patients with single etiology and 36 matched healthy controls. FC feature of the region of interest (PCC) were characterized using a seed-based correlation method with the voxels in the whole-brain., Results: Compared with healthy controls, patients showed significant decreased FC to the right middle temporal gyrus (MTG), right thalamus and bilateral insula. By contrast, PCC demonstrated increased functional connectivity between the precuneus, bilateral inferior parietal lobule and middle occipital gyrus. We also found correlations between the disease duration of PT and FC of PCC-right MTG (r=-0.616, p<0.001)., Conclusions: Unilateral PT patients could have abnormal FC to the PCC bilaterally in the brain. PCC, as a highly integrated brain area, is an example of nucleus that was involved in mediation between different neural networks. It might be a modulation core between visual network and auditory network. The decreased FC of MTG to PCC may indicate a down regulation of activity between PCC and auditory associated brain cortex. Decreased FC between limbic system (bilateral AI) and PCC may reflect the emotional message control in patient group. This study facilitated understanding of the underlying neuropathological process in patients with pulsatile tinnitus., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: To evaluate the characteristics of sigmoid plate dehiscence (SPD) causing pulsatile tinnitus (PT) on CT arteriography and venography (CTA + V)., Methods: Thirty PT patients treated successfully with SPD reconstruction were enrolled. Sixty asymptomatic patients were matched. The location, extent, number of SPD cases and concomitant signs, including venous outflow dominance, transverse sinus stenosis, high jugular bulb, temporal bone pneumatization, height of pituitary gland and pituitary fossa, abnormal mastoid emissary vein, were detected and compared using CTA + V., Results: More than one SPD was found on the symptomatic side in 13/30 PT patients (43.3 %). The upper segment of the sigmoid plate was involved in 29/44 SPDs in the vertical direction (65.9 %); the lateral wall was involved in 38/44 SPDs in the horizontal direction (86.4 %). Singular SPD was detected in 3/60 asymptomatic patients (1.67 ± 0.35 mm(2)), less so in PT patients (7.97 ± 5.17 mm(2)). Compared with the control group, ipsilateral venous outflow dominance, high jugular bulb and bilateral transverse sinus stenosis were more common in the PT group, together with deeper pituitary fossa and flatter pituitary glands., Conclusion: SPD causing PT has characteristic CT findings. It may be generated by vascular or intracranial pressure abnormalities and act as a common key to triggering PT's perception., Key Points: Pulsatile tinnitus (PT) caused by sigmoid plate dehiscence (SPD) may be cured. SPD causing PT has some characteristic findings on CT. SPD may be a common key to triggering PT's perception. Thin-slice high resolution CT venography is recommended for SPD assessment. The relationship between intracranial pressure and SPD causing PT should be studied.

Previous resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) studies have shown that neurological changes are important findings in vascular pulsatile tinnitus (PT) patients. Here, we utilized rs-fMRI to measure the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) in forty patients with unilateral PT and forty age-, gender-, and education-matched normal control subjects. Two different frequency bands (slow-4, 0.027-0.073 Hz, and slow-5, 0.010-0.027 Hz, which are more sensitive to subcortical and cortical neurological signal changes, resp.) were analyzed to examine the intrinsic brain activity in detail. Compared to controls, PT patients had increased ALFF values mainly in the PCu, bilateral IPL (inferior parietal lobule), left IFG (inferior frontal gyrus), and right IFG/anterior insula and decreased ALFF values in the multiple occipital areas including bilateral middle-inferior occipital lobe. For the differences of the two frequency bands, widespread ALFF differences were observed. The ALFF abnormalities in aMPFC/ACC, PCu, right IPL, and some regions of occipital and parietal cortices were greater in the slow-5 band compared to the slow-4 band. Additionally, the THI score of PT patients was positively correlated with changes in slow-5 and slow-4 band in PCu. Pulsatile tinnitus is a disease affecting the neurological activities of multiple brain regions. Slow-5 band is more sensitive in detecting the alternations. Our results also indicated the importance of pathophysiological investigations in patients with pulsatile tinnitus in the future.

Introduction: The mechanism of occurrence of sigmoid sinus dehiscence/diverticulum (SSDD) in pulsatile tinnitus (PT) patients remains under debate. Its association with idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) lacks evidence, which is important for therapeutic planning and improving the clinical outcome. This study aimed to evaluate the association between SSDD and IIH by comparing the prevalence of several established imaging features of IIH between PT patients with SSDD and healthy volunteers., Methods: Thirty-three unilateral PT patients with SSDD identified on CT images and 33 age- and sex-matched healthy volunteers underwent T1-weighted volumetric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The optic nerve, pituitary gland, transverse sinus, and ventricles were assessed. The prevalence of established IIH imaging features was compared between the two groups. Furthermore, the PT patients were divided into two subgroups: PT patients with dehiscence only and PT patients with diverticulum. The same statistical analysis was performed on each pathophysiologic entity respectively., Results: The PT patients with SSDD showed a significantly higher prevalence of empty sella (P < 0.001), flattened posterior sclera (P = 0.001), vertical tortuosity of the optic nerve (P = 0.001), protrusion of the optic nerve (P = 0.006), transverse sinus stenosis (P = 0.011), and distension of the optic nerve sheath (P = 0.000). There were no significant differences between the PT and control groups in the maximum widths of the third and fourth ventricles and the lateral ventricle size. In contrast to controls, the imaging findings persisted in both of pathophysiologic entities, except for transverse sinus stenosis., Conclusions: Several IIH imaging features occur more frequently in PT patients with SSDD than in healthy individuals, which suggests a potential correlation between SSDD with PT and IIH.

Background and Purpose: The imaging features of sigmoid plate dehiscence-induced pulsatile tinnitus have been presented. The origin of the sigmoid plate dehiscence, however, remains unclear. Our aim was to assess the prevalence and extent of sigmoid plate dehiscence on computed tomography (CT) images in multiple age groups to determine whether this condition is more likely to be congenital or acquired., Materials and Methods: We retrospectively reviewed contrast-enhanced CT images of sigmoid plates of temporal bones in 504 patients. Each temporal bone was characterized as normal or dehiscent. Patients were then subcategorized into four age groups, and the prevalence and extent of dehiscent sigmoid plates in each group were calculated and compared., Results: Overall, 80 patients had sigmoid plate dehiscence, nine of whom had it bilaterally. In successively older age groups, the prevalences of sigmoid plate dehiscence were 18.9%, 20.1%, 14.5%, and 12.7%, respectively. Respective average anteroposterior bony defect diameters were 3.7±1.7, 3.0±1.3, 3.1±1.5, and 3.0±1.1 mm. Respective average vertical bony defect diameters were 3.6±2.3, 2.6±1.2, 3.2±1.5, and 3.0±1.7 mm. The prevalence and extent of sigmoid plate dehiscence were not statistically different among the four age groups., Conclusions: The similar radiologic prevalence and extent of dehiscent sigmoid plates among the age groups suggest that the dehiscence is more commonly a congenital than an acquired condition., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: The persistent petrosquamosal sinus (PSS) is usually overlooked before or during otological surgeries, which may cause misdiagnosis or iatrogenic bleedings. Imaging characteristics have not been well summarized for PSS, especially for large consecutive cases., Purpose: To analyze the characteristics of PSS on high-resolution CT venography (HRCTV) in order to improve imaging diagnostic accuracy as well as to assist clinical management., Material and Methods: Five hundred and thirty-two consecutive patients with pulsatile tinnitus who underwent CT angiography and venography examinations in the last 4 years were reviewed. Thirty patients with PSS in 39 temporal bones (TBs) were identified by two radiologists' consensus. The characteristics of PSS were analyzed according to its embryological variations. Different types of PSS were divided according to the origin and course, respectively., Results: The average diameter of the PSS was 1.4 mm. Twenty-nine TBs (74%) had PSS origin from the dorsolateral surface of the transverse sinus before its junction with the superior petrosal sinus (Position A); three TBs (8%) had PSS origin from the ventroinferior surface of the transverse sinus after or before the junction (Position B or C); seven TBs (18%) had PSS without definite origin (Position D). Eighteen TBs (46%) had PSS course in a lateral bony canal/groove (lateral canal type); 15 TBs (38%) had PSS course in petrosquamosal fissure (PSF) (PSF type); six TBs (15%) had PSS course in both (lateral canal/PSF type). For other imaging findings, a branch entering the cranial part of PSS was identified in 10 TBs (26%); a vascular mass was formed in five TBs (13%); focal defect of bony wall was observed in seven TBs (18%). A postglenoid foramen (PGF) was detected in 25 TBs (64%)., Conclusion: HRCTV can mostly identify the characteristics of PSS similar to its anatomic findings and the optimal imaging technique has the potential to improve its clinical management.

Objective: To evaluate the CT the characteristics of dehiscent sigmoid plate accompanied with pulsatile tinnitus (PT)., Methods: Dual phase contrast enhancement CT data of 15 PT patients were analyzed retrospectively., Results: Dehiscent sigmoid plate was located on the same side of PT in all patients. Thirteen defects had been showed in both CT images and surgery. Among of them, eight defects located on the descending segment, 3 on the superior curve, and the other 2 defects involved the superior curve and descending segment of sigmoid sinus simultaneously. The maximum anteroposterior and vertical diameters of defect measured in CT images were significant larger than that measured during surgery. There were still 5 defects showed in CT images, which did not been found during surgery. Among 9 patients with unilateral dominant brain venous systems, all the dehiscent sigmoid plates were seen on the dominant side. The other 2 patients showed co-dominant brain venous systems, whose the dehiscent sigmoid plates were on the left side. In addition, extensive pneumatized temporal bone filled with air was found in all patients., Conclusion: Dehiscent sigmoid plate commonly located on the anterior, lateral, or anterolateral wall of the superior curve or descending segment of the sigmoid plate, which usually coexist with the strong unilateral dominant brain venous system and extensive temporal bone pneumatization.

Background: Although the imaging features of sigmoid sinus diverticulum induced pulsatile tinnitus (PT) have been presented in some extent, detailed imaging findings still have not been systematically evaluated and precise diagnostic radiographic criteria has not been established., Purpose: To examine the computed tomography (CT) characteristics of sigmoid sinus diverticulum accompanied with PT., Material and Methods: Fifteen PT patients with sigmoid sinus diverticula proven by surgery were recruited after consenting. CT images of 15 patients were obtained and analyzed, including features of diverticula, brain venous systems, integrity of the sigmoid plate, and the degree of temporal bone pneumatization., Results: Sigmoid sinus diverticulum was located on the same side of PT in 15 patients. Diverticula originated at the superior curve of the sigmoid sinus in 11 patients and the descending segment of the sigmoid sinus in four patients. Sigmoid sinus diverticula focally eroded into the adjacent mastoid air cells in 12 patients and mastoid cortex in three patients. Among eight patients with unilateral dominant brain venous systems, the diverticula were seen on the dominant side in seven patients and non-dominant side in one patient. In contrast, the other seven patients showed co-dominant brain venous systems, with three presenting diverticula on the right side and four on the left. More notably, dehiscent sigmoid plate on the PT side was demonstrated in all patients. In addition, temporal bone hyper-pneumatization was found in nine patients, good and moderate pneumatization in three patients, respectively., Conclusion: Dehiscent sigmoid plate and extensive temporal bone pneumatization are two important imaging characteristics of the PT induced by sigmoid sinus diverticulum.

We report a newly evidenced cause of venous pulsatile tinnitus--the petrosquamosal sinus in the temporal bone. We also present the case of a 45-year-old woman who presented with an incapacitating objective pulsatile tinnitus in the left ear for 10 years. The radiology evidenced a petrosquamosal sinus in the air cells of the left temporal bone. The symptoms of pulsatile tinnitus disappeared completely after surgical treatment., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

This study aimed to investigate the effect of the transverse sinus (TS) stenosis (TSS) position caused by arachnoid granulation on patients with venous pulsatile tinnitus (VPT) and to further identify the types of TSS that are of therapeutic significance for patients. Multiphysics interaction models of six patients with moderate TSS caused by arachnoid granulation and virtual stent placement in TSS were reconstructed, including three patients with TSS located in the middle segment of the TS (group 1) and three patients with TTS in the middle and proximal involvement segment of the TS (group 2). The transient multiphysics interaction simulation method was applied to elucidate the differences in biomechanical and acoustic parameters between the two groups. The results revealed that the blood flow pattern at the TS and sigmoid sinus junction was significantly changed depending on the stenosis position. Preoperative patients had increased blood flow in the TSS region and TSS downstream where the blood flow impacted the vessel wall. In group 1, the postoperative blood flow pattern, average wall pressure, vessel wall vibration, and sound pressure level of the three patients were comparable to the preoperative state. However, the postoperative blood flow velocity decreased in group 2. The postoperative average wall pressure, vessel wall vibration, and sound pressure level of the three patients were significantly improved compared with the preoperative state. Intravascular intervention therapy should be considered for patients with moderate TSS caused by arachnoid granulations in the middle and proximal involvement segment of the TS. TSS might not be considered the cause of VPT symptoms in patients with moderate TSS caused by arachnoid granulation in the middle segment of the TS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have shown neural connectivity alterations after the treatment of tinnitus. We aim to study the value of the baseline functional connectivity features of neural network nodes to predict outcomes of sound therapy through adjusted narrow band noise. The fMRI data of 27 untreated tinnitus patients and 27 matched healthy controls were analyzed. We calculated the graph-theoretical metric degree centrality (DC) to characterize the functional connectivity of the neural network nodes. Therapeutic outcomes are determined by the changes in the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI) score after a 12-week intervention. The connectivity of 10 brain nodes in tinnitus patients was significantly increased at baseline. The functional connectivity of right insula, inferior parietal lobule (IPL), bilateral thalami, and left middle temporal gyrus was significantly modified with the sound therapy, and such changes correlated with THI changes in tinnitus patients. Receiver operating characteristic curve analyses revealed that the measurements from the five brain regions were effective at classifying improvement after therapy. After age, gender, and education correction, the adjusted area under the curve (AUC) values for the bilateral thalami were the highest (left, 0.745; right, 0.708). Our study further supported the involvement of the fronto-parietal-cingulate network in tinnitus and found that the connectivity of the thalamus at baseline is an object neuroimaging-based indicator to predict clinical outcome of sound therapy through adjusted narrow band noise.

Sigmoid sinus wall dehiscence (SSWD) is an important etiology of venous pulsatile tinnitus (VPT) and is treated by sigmoid sinus wall reconstruction (SSWR). This study aimed to investigate the therapeutic effects of the different degrees of SSWR and the prognostic effect in patients with VPT. Personalized models of three patients with SSWD (control), 3/4SSWD, 1/2SSWD, 1/4SSWD, and 0SSWD were reconstructed. A multiphysics interaction approach was applied to elucidate the biomechanical and acoustic changes. Results revealed that after SSWR, the average pressure of venous vessel on the SSWD region reduced by 33.70 ± 12.53%, 35.86 ± 12.39%, and 39.70 ± 12.45% (mean ± SD) in three patients with 3/4SSWD, 1/2SSWD, and 1/4SSWD. The maximum displacement of the SSWR region reduced by 25.91 ± 30.20%, 37.20 ± 31.47%, 52.60 ± 34.66%, and 79.35 ± 18.13% (mean ± SD) in three patients with 3/4SSWD, 1/2SSWD, 1/4SSWD, and 0SSWD, with a magnitude approximately 10−3 times that of the venous vessel in the SSWD region. The sound pressure level at the tympanum reduced by 23.72 ± 1.91%, 31.03 ± 14.40%, 45.62 ± 19.11%, and 128.46 ± 15.46% (mean ± SD). The SSWR region was still loaded with high stress in comparison to the surrounding region. The SSWR region of the temporal bone effectively shielded the high wall pressure and blocked the transmission of venous vessel vibration to the inner ear. Patients with inadequate SSWR still had residual VPT symptoms despite the remission of VPT symptoms. Complete SSWR could completely solve VPT issues. High-stress distribution of the SSWR region may be the cause of the recurrence of VPT symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Altered cerebral blood flow (CBF) and regional homogeneity (ReHo) have been reported in pulsatile tinnitus (PT) patients. We aimed to explore regional neurovascular coupling changes in PT patients. Materials and Methods: Twenty-four right PT patients and 25 sex- and age-matched normal controls were included in this study. All subjects received arterial spin labeling imaging to measure CBF and functional MRI to compute ReHo. CBF/ReHo ratio was used to assess regional neurovascular coupling between the two groups. We also analyzed the correlation between CBF/ReHo ratio and clinical data from the PT patients. Results: PT patients exhibited increased CBF/ReHo ratio in left middle temporal gyrus and right angular gyrus than normal controls, and no decreased CBF/ReHo ratio was found. CBF/ReHo ratio in the left middle temporal gyrus of PT patients was positively correlated with Tinnitus Handicap Inventory score (r = 0.433, p = 0.035). Conclusion: These findings indicated that patients with PT exhibit abnormal neurovascular coupling, which provides new information for understanding the neuropathological mechanisms underlying PT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Transverse sinus stenosis (TSS) is associated with various symptoms, but whether it can lead to pathological brain changes is unclear. This study aimed to investigate brain changes in venous pulsatile tinnitus (PT) patients with TSS. Materials and Methods: In this study, fifty-five consecutive venous PT patients and fifty age- and gender-matched healthy controls (HCs) were investigated. In CT venography, the combined conduit score (CCS) was used to assess the degree of TSS in venous PT patients. Magnetic resonance venography was used to assess TSS in HCs. All the participants had undergone arterial spin labeling and structural MRI scans. Results: Two patients without TSS and ten HCs with TSS were excluded. Fifty-three venous PT patients with TSS and 40 HCs without TSS were included in this study. All the patients had unilateral cases: 16 on the left and 37 on the right. Based on the CCS, the patients were divided into high-degree TSS (a score of 1–2) (n = 30) and low-degree TSS groups (a score of 3–4) (n = 23). In the whole brain and gray matter, the patients with high-degree TSS showed decreased cerebral blood flow (CBF) compared with patients with low-degree TSS as well as HCs (P < 0.05), and no significant difference in CBF was found in patients with low-degree TSS and HCs (P > 0.05). In white matter (WM) regions, the patients with high-degree TSS exhibited decreased CBF relative to the HCs (P < 0.05). The incidence of cloud-like WM hyperintensity was significantly higher in the above two patient groups than in the HC group (P < 0.05). Conclusion: TSS in venous PT patients may lead to decreased CBF and cloud-like WM hyperintensity. These neuroimaging findings may provide new insights into pathological TSS in venous PT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to investigate abnormal tinnitus activity by evaluating brain surface-based amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) changes detected by resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (RS-fMRI) in patients with idiopathic tinnitus before and after 24 weeks of sound therapy. We hypothesized that sound therapy could gradually return cortical local brain function to a relatively normal range. In this prospective observational study, we recruited thirty-three tinnitus patients who had undergone 24 weeks of sound therapy and 26 matched healthy controls (HCs). For the two groups of subjects, we analyzed the spontaneous neural activity of tinnitus patients by cortical ALFF and detected its correlation with clinical indicators of tinnitus. Patients' Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI) scores were assessed to determine the severity of their tinnitus before and after treatment. Two-way mixed model analysis of variance and Pearson's correlation analysis were used in the statistical analysis. Student–Newman–Keuls tests were used in the post hoc analysis. Interaction effects between the two groups and between the two scans revealing local neural activity as assessed by ALFF were observed in the bilateral dorsal stream visual cortex (DSVC), bilateral posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), bilateral anterior cingulate and medial prefrontal cortex (ACC and MPC), left temporo-parieto-occipital junction (TPOJ), left orbital and polar frontal cortex (OPFC), left paracentral lobular and mid cingulate cortex (PCL and MCC), right insular and frontal opercular cortex (IFOC), and left early visual cortex (EVC). Importantly, local functional activity in the left TPOJ and right PCC in the patient group was significantly lower than that in the HCs at baseline and was increased to relatively normal levels after treatment. The 24-week sound therapy tinnitus group demonstrated significantly higher ALFF in the left TPOJ and right PCC than in the tinnitus baseline group. Also, compared with the HC baseline group and the 24-week HC group, the 24-week sound therapy tinnitus group demonstrated slightly lower or higher ALFF in the left TPOJ and right PCC, and there were no differences between the 24-week sound therapy tinnitus and HC groups. Decreased THI scores and ALFF changes in the abovementioned brain regions were not correlated. Taken together, surface-based RS-fMRI can provide more subtle local functional activity to explain the mechanism of tinnitus treatment, and long-term sound therapy had a normalizing effect on tinnitus patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]