Altered regional homogeneity of spontaneous brain activity in idiopathic trigeminal neuralgia.
The pathophysiology of idiopathic trigeminal neuralgia (ITN) has conventionally been thought to be induced by neurovascular compression theory. Recent structural brain imaging evidence has suggested an additional central component for ITN pathophysiology. However, far less attention has been given to investigations of the basis of abnormal resting-state brain activity in these patients. The objective of this study was to investigate local brain activity in patients with ITN and its correlation with clinical variables of pain. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data from 17 patients with ITN and 19 age- and sex-matched healthy controls were analyzed using regional homogeneity (ReHo) analysis, which is a data-driven approach used to measure the regional synchronization of spontaneous brain activity. Patients with ITN had decreased ReHo in the left amygdala, right parahippocampal gyrus, and left cerebellum and increased ReHo in the right inferior temporal gyrus, right thalamus, right inferior parietal lobule, and left postcentral gyrus (corrected). Furthermore, the increase in ReHo in the left precentral gyrus was positively correlated with visual analog scale (r=0.54; P=0.002). Our study found abnormal functional homogeneity of intrinsic brain activity in several regions in ITN, suggesting the maladaptivity of the process of daily pain attacks and a central role for the pathophysiology of ITN.
Department of Neurology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, People's Republic of China ; Department of Neurology, The Second Hospital of Jiaxing City, Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province, People's Republic of China.
Yanping
Y
Wang
Department of Neurology, The Second Hospital of Jiaxing City, Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province, People's Republic of China.
Xiaoling
X
Zhang
Department of Neurology, The Second Hospital of Jiaxing City, Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province, People's Republic of China.
Qiaobing
Q
Guan
Department of Neurology, The Second Hospital of Jiaxing City, Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province, People's Republic of China.
Lihong
L
Wan
Department of Neurology, The Second Hospital of Jiaxing City, Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province, People's Republic of China.
Yahui
Y
Yi
Department of Neurology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, People's Republic of China.
Chun-Feng
CF
Liu
brain; chronic pain; local connectivity; resting fMRI; trigeminal neuralgia