Alterations in patients with major depressive disorder before and after electroconvulsive therapy measured by fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (fALFF)

Background: Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is an important treatment option for patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). However, the mechanisms of ECT in MDD are still unclear. Methods: Twenty-four patients with severe MDD and 14 healthy controls were enrolled in this study. Eight ECT sessions were conducted for MDD patients using brief-pulse square-wave signal at bitemporal locations. To investigate the regional cerebral blood flow in MDD patients before and after ECT treatments by resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI), the patients were scanned twice (before the first ECT and after the eighth ECT) for data acquisition. Afterward, we adopted fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (fALFF) to assess the alterations of regional brain activity. Results: Compared with healthy controls, the fALFF in the cerebellum lobe, parahippocampal gyrus, fusiform gyrus, anterior cingulate gyrus, and thalamus in MDD patients before ECT (pre-ECT) was significantly increased. In another comparison, the fALFF in the cerebellum anterior lobe, fusiform gyrus, insula, parahippocampal gyrus, middle frontal gyrus, and inferior frontal gyrus in pre-ECT patients was significantly greater than the post-ECT fALFF. Limitations: Only two rs-fMRI scans were conducted at predefined times: before the first and after the eighth ECT treatment. More scans during the ECT sessions would yield more information. In addition, the sample size in this study was limited. The number of control subjects was relatively small. A larger number of subjects would produce more robust findings. Conclusions: The fALFF of both healthy controls and post-ECT patients in cerebellum anterior lobe, fusiform gyrus, and parahippocampal gyrus is significantly lower than the fALFF of pre-ECT patients. This finding demonstrates that ECT treatment is effective on these brain areas in MDD patients.