title: Microstructural Abnormalities Were Found in Brain Gray Matter from Patients with Chronic Myofascial Pain.
abstract: Myofascial pain, presented as myofascial trigger points (MTrPs)-related pain, is a common, chronic disease involving skeletal muscle, but its underlying mechanisms have been poorly understood. Previous studies have revealed that chronic pain can induce microstructural abnormalities in the cerebral gray matter. However, it remains unclear whether the brain gray matters of patients with chronic MTrPs-related pain undergo alteration. In this study, we employed the Diffusion Kurtosis Imaging (DKI) technique, which is particularly sensitive to brain microstructural perturbation, to monitor the MTrPs-related microstructural alterations in brain gray matter of patients with chronic pain. Our results revealed that, in comparison with the healthy controls, patients with chronic myofascial pain exhibited microstructural abnormalities in the cerebral gray matter and these lesions were mainly distributed in the limbic system and the brain areas involved in the pain matrix. In addition, we showed that microstructural abnormalities in the right anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) had a significant negative correlation with the course of disease and pain intensity. The results of this study demonstrated for the first time that there are microstructural abnormalities in the brain gray matter of patients with MTrPs-related chronic pain. Our findings may provide new insights into the future development of appropriate therapeutic strategies to this disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University Urumqi, China.
authors.forename: Peng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, Zunyi Medical University Zunyi, China.
authors.forename: Bangyong
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Zunyi Medical University Zunyi, China.
authors.forename: Ganjun
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, Zunyi Medical UniversityZunyi, China; Guizhou Key Laboratory of Anesthesia and Organ Protection, Zunyi Medical UniversityZunyi, China.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, Zunyi Medical UniversityZunyi, China; Guizhou Key Laboratory of Anesthesia and Organ Protection, Zunyi Medical UniversityZunyi, China.
authors.forename: Song
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University Urumqi, China.
authors.forename: Jin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University Urumqi, China.
authors.forename: Jianjiang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University Urumqi, China.
authors.forename: Jiang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Zunyi Medical University Zunyi, China.
authors.forename: Tijiang
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City KS, USA.
authors.forename: Xiaoming
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, Zunyi Medical UniversityZunyi, China; Guizhou Key Laboratory of Anesthesia and Organ Protection, Zunyi Medical UniversityZunyi, China.
authors.forename: Tian
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University Urumqi, China.
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zheng
keywords: chronic pain; diffusion kurtosis imaging; gray matter; microstructural abnormalities; myofascial trigger points