A Resting State FMRI Study Of Idiopathic Trigeminal Neuralgia Patients

[Objective]Using resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (R-fMRI) based on brain neurons spontaneous activity to study the changes of amplitude of low frequency fluctuation (ALFF) value, regional homogeneity (ReHo) value and the functional connectivity coefficiency between periaqueductal gray with other voxels in idiopathic trigeminal neuralgia (ITN) patients. The purpose was to investigate the pathological and regulative mechanism of central nervous system in ITN patients[Methods]We acquired R-fMRI data from left ITN (LITN) group (23 patients with left ITN), right ITN (RITN) group (23 patients with right ITN) and healthy control (HC) group (36 healthy subjects) and using two sample t-test compared between groups for the ALFF value, ReHo value and functional connectivity coefficiency.[Results]1. ALFF analysis:Compared with HC gruop, LITN group showed decreased ALFF values in right thalamus, periaqueductal gray (PAG) and bilateral posterior midcingulate cortex (P<0.01). Compared with HC group, RITN group showed decreased ALFF values in left thalamus, left precuneus, left superior temporal gyrus and left cerebellum, increased ALFF values in bilateral prefrontal (P<0.01). Compared with RITN group, LITN group showed decreased ALFF values in left precentral gyrus, increased ALFF values in left precuneus and left cuneus (P<0.01).2. ReHo analysis:Compared with HC group, left ITN group showed increased ReHo values in bilateral nucleus accumbens, bilateral caudate nucleus, right putamen, right precentral gyrus (M1), right supplementary motor area (SMA) and right anterior insular(P<0.01).3. FC analysis (functional connectivity coefficiency between PAG with other voxels):Compared with HC group, right ITN group showed a significant increase in functional resting-state connectivity between PAG, bilateral rostral anterior cingulate cortex(rACC) and right posterior parietal cortex include supramarginal gyrus and parietal operculum(P<0.01).[Conclusion]To study the changes of ALFF value, ReHo value and FC in ITN patients using resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (R-fMRI) based on brain neurons spontaneous activity. These researches showed the dysfunction in multiple brain areas of the ITN patients, which were involved in pain processing-motor, emotional and endogenous regulation. It may be reflected regulation and adaptability of the brain about chronic pain, and evidenced that central nervous system is a significant factor involved in the development and regulation mechanism of the ITN.