Cerebral perfusion alterations in patients with trigeminal neuralgia as measured by pseudo-continuous arterial spin labeling
Accumulating evidence suggests that trigeminal neuralgia (TN) causes structural and functional alterations in the brain. However, only a few studies have focused on cerebral blood flow (CBF) changes in patients with TN. This study aimed to explore whether altered cerebral perfusion patterns exist in...
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Published in | Frontiers in neuroscience Vol. 16; p. 1065411 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Switzerland
Frontiers Research Foundation
16.12.2022
Frontiers Media S.A |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Accumulating evidence suggests that trigeminal neuralgia (TN) causes structural and functional alterations in the brain. However, only a few studies have focused on cerebral blood flow (CBF) changes in patients with TN. This study aimed to explore whether altered cerebral perfusion patterns exist in patients with TN and investigate the relationship between abnormal regional CBF (rCBF) and clinical characteristics of TN.
This study included 28 patients with TN and 30 age- and sex-matched healthy controls (HCs) who underwent perfusion functional MRI (fMRI) of the brain using pseudo-continuous arterial spin labeling (pCASL) in the resting state. The regions of significantly altered CBF in patients with TN were detected using group comparison analyses. Then, the relationships between the clinical characteristics and abnormal rCBF were further investigated.
Compared to the control group, patients with TN exhibited increased rCBF, primarily in the thalamus, middle frontal gyrus (MFG), and left insula. Furthermore, the CBF values of the thalamus were negatively correlated with the pain intensity of TN and positively correlated with pain duration in patients with TN.
Primary alterations in rCBF in patients with TN occurred in different brain regions related to pain, which are involved in cognitive-affective interaction, pain perception, and pain modulation. These results indicate that non-invasive resting cerebral perfusion imaging may contribute complementary information to further understanding the neuropathological mechanism underlying TN. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 Edited by: Yilong Ma, Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, United States This article was submitted to Brain Imaging Methods, a section of the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience These authors have contributed equally to this work Reviewed by: Timothy White, Northwell Health, United States; Jun Zhong, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China |
ISSN: | 1662-4548 1662-453X 1662-453X |
DOI: | 10.3389/fnins.2022.1065411 |