The FC analysis from the region of interest (ROI) to whole brain voxels was used to investigate 29 patients with NDPH and 37 well-matched healthy controls (HCs) with 3.0 Tesla MRI. The 76 nuclei in the brainstem atlas were defined as ROIs. Furthermore, we explored the correlations between FC and patients\' clinical characteristics and neuropsychological evaluations.
Patients with NDPH exhibited reduced FC in multiple brainstem nuclei compared to HCs (including right inferior medullary reticular formation, right mesencephalic reticular formation, bilateral locus coeruleus, bilateral laterodorsal tegmental nucleus-central gray of the rhombencephalon, median raphe, left medial parabrachial nucleus, periaqueductal gray, and bilateral ventral tegmental area-parabrachial pigmented nucleus complex) and increased FC in periaqueductal gray. No significant correlations were found between the FC of these brain regions and clinical characteristics or neuropsychological evaluations after Bonferroni correction (p > 0.00016).
Our results demonstrated that patients with NDPH have abnormal FC of brainstem nuclei involved in the perception and regulation of pain and emotions.
方法:从感兴趣区域(ROI)到全脑体素的FC分析用于研究29名NDPH患者和37名匹配良好的健康对照(HC),并使用3.0TeslaMRI进行研究。脑干图谱中的76个核被定义为ROI。此外,我们探讨了FC与患者临床特征和神经心理学评估之间的相关性。
结果:与HC相比,NDPH患者在多个脑干核中表现出减少的FC(包括右下髓质网状结构,右侧中脑网状结构,双侧蓝斑,双侧背外侧被盖核-菱形脑的中央灰色,中段raphe,左臂旁内侧核,导水管周围灰色,和双侧腹侧被盖区-臂旁色素核复合物)和导水管周围灰色的FC增加。Bonferroni校正后,这些脑区的FC与临床特征或神经心理学评估之间没有发现显着相关性(p>0.00016)。
结论:我们的结果表明,NDPH患者的脑干核FC异常,参与疼痛和情绪的感知和调节。