Cerebral blood flow analysis of pain-related brain regions in patients with primary trigeminal neuralgia using pseudo continuous arterial spin labeling
CHENG Qiansheng
HAN Tong
CAO Chen
HAN Bihui
CHENG Yue
NI Hongyan
Abstract：Objective To analyze the changes of regional cerebral blood flow(rCBF)in pain-related brain regions of patients with primary trigeminal neuralgia(PTN)by pseudo continuous arterial spin labeling(pCASL)technique.Methods Forty-eight patients with PTN were retrospectively analyzed and divided into right PTN(RPTN)group(28 cases)and left PTN(LPTN)group(20 cases)according to the pain site,and 35 healthy control group(HC)cases were included.All subjects underwent conventional head MRI and arterial spin labeling(ASL)examination.Five pain-related brain regions of interest(ROI)including posterior central gyrus,insula,anterior cingulate gyrus,orbitofrontal cortex,and thalamus were selected for rCBF values analysis.Paired t test was used to compare rCBF values of left and right sides of the three groups,SNK corrected one-way ANOVA analysis was used to compare rCBF values among the three groups.Results The rCBF increased in both the left posterior central gyrus and orbitofrontal cortex of the RPTN group,and similarly in the right posterior central gyrus and orbitofrontal cortex of the LPTN group(both P<0.05).Additionally,both the RPTN and LPTN groups exhibited an increase in rCBF in the right insular(both P<0.05).Conversely,the rCBF decreased in both the left thalamus of the RPTN group and the right thalamus of the LPTN group(both P<0.05).Comparisons among the three groups revealed that the rCBF values of the left posterior central gyrus and orbitofrontal cortex in the RPTN group,as well as the right posterior central gyrus and orbitofrontal cortex in the LPTN group,were higher than those in the other two groups(both P<0.05).Furthermore,the rCBF values of the left thalamus in the RPTN group and the right thalamus in the LPTN group were lower than those of the other two groups(both P<0.05).Additionally,the rCBF values of the right insula in both RPTN and LPTN groups were higher than those in the HC group(both P<0.05).Conclusion Using pCASL technology,alterations in the rCBF of the postcentral gyrus,right insula,orbitofrontal cortex,and thalamus were observed in patients with PTN,indicating that the occurrence of PTN may impact cerebral blood flow in pain-related brain regions.
Keywords：Trigeminal neuralgiaMagnetic resonance imagingPseudo continuous arterial spin labelingPain-related brain regionsRegional cerebral blood flow
Publication Date：2024-01-15
Online Publishing Date：2025-08-15(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：6( 7-11,59 )