title: An fMRI marker for peripheral nerve regeneration.
abstract: Final outcome after surgical repair of peripheral nerve transections varies. Here, we present the first longitudinal functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) observation of cortical somatosensory reorganization patterns after surgery. A 43-year-old man presented with isolated complete transection of the right median nerve and underwent immediate epineural end-to-end coaptation. Applying standardized vibrotactile median nerve stimulation, 3 T brain activation maps were evaluated at 1, 7, 15 weeks and 1 year after surgery. Initially, the affected hemisphere showed no primary activation but increased frontoparietal activity. After 1 year, primary activation had recovered, and frontoparietal activity was decreased relative to the nonaffected hemisphere. Based on these longitudinal fMRI patterns, we propose a new marker for restoration of somatosensory function, which may not be provided by electrophysiological methods.
authors: Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
authors: Jakob
authors: J
authors: Rath
authors: Nicolaus
authors: N
authors: Klinger
authors: Alexander
authors: A
authors: Geissler
authors: Ilse
authors: I
authors: Höllinger
authors: Susanne
authors: S
authors: Gruber
authors: Moritz
authors: M
authors: Wurnig
authors: Thomas
authors: T
authors: Hausner
authors: Eduard
authors: E
authors: Auff
authors: Robert
authors: R
authors: Schmidhammer
authors: Roland
authors: R
authors: Beisteiner
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods; D005073:Evoked Potentials, Somatosensory / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008475:Median Nerve / Q000293:injuries* / Q000502:physiology / Q000601:surgery; D009416:Nerve Regeneration / Q000502:physiology*; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology*; D013003:Somatosensory Cortex / Q000502:physiology*