Vincent Jerome Schmithorst1, Jodie Votava-Smith2, Vince Lee1, Vidya Rajagopalan2, Shaheda Suleiman1, Lisa Paquette2, and Ashok Panigrahy1
1Radiology, Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, Pittsburgh, PA, United States, 2Children's Hospital of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States
We used functional connectivity MRI and graph
analysis to investigate the impact of congenital heart disease (CHD) on
functional network topology in neonates.
Cost-dependent and cost-independent
analyses both showed decreases in global segregation (transitivity). The cost-dependent analysis showed a decrease
in clustering coefficient (reflective of nodal changes) while the
cost-independent analysis showed a decrease in modularity and an increase in
participation coefficient (reflective of changed community structure). Minimal differences were seen for CHD patients
scanned post-operatively compared to those scanned pre-operatively. Results indicate complex CHD results in
lasting changes to functional network topology not ameliorated by the effects
of surgery.
