Neurofunctional and microstructural features of the brain in patients with nutritional obesity according to special magnetic resonance imaging techniques (literature review)

Background. Obesity is a chronic disease characterized by excessive accumulation of adipose tissue in the body, manifested by an increase in body weight by 20 percent or more of the average values. Obesity is becoming an increasingly significant public health problem. Assessment of the functional pathology of the brain provides more information about the pathogenetic changes leading to metabolic disorders. Modern methods of neuroimaging make it possible to obtain information about the initial functional changes in the brain according to the data of intracerebral connectivity - functional connectivity between its individual structures.

Objective. The study of modern literature data on functional disorders of brain connectivity in patients with obesity, including those with eating disorders.

Materials and methods. A systematic review of studies published in foreign and domestic literature has been carried out. Articles were searched using the PubMed database and Elibrary.

Results. The problem of functional and microstructural studies of the brain in obesity is covered in sufficient detail in Western English-language literature. Nevertheless, it must be stated that at the moment there are practically no articles on the subject under study in domestic scientific publications. However, it should be noted that in the foreign literature there are rare data on neuroimaging of the brain in the aspect of neural network connectivity, studies in obesity with concomitant somatic pathology, for example, in type II diabetes, and other disorders of the endocrine system. There are relatively few data where correlations would be made with the age and gender of patients, concomitant mental disorders, which emphasizes the relevance of the issue.

At the subsequent stages of the joint development of endocrinology, psychiatry and radiation diagnostics, the use of modern MRI techniques will help with the choice of target structures for stereotaxic correction of the described pathology. The clinical application of functional MRI will help to reveal the pathogenesis of various types of obesity at the neurofunctional  levels with further prediction and analysis of the development of the disease, while the inconsistency and inconsistency of the currently obtained results of studies of the pathogenesis of alimentary obesity in terms of the pathology of functional connectivity based on fMRI,  the absence clinical application of special MRI techniques substantiate the need to continue scientific research in this direction

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