Altered cerebral neurovascular coupling in medication-overuse headache: A study combining multi-modal resting-state fMRI with 3D PCASL

Frontiers in Neuroscience

Neuroscience

Huan Xu¹  Wenping Fan¹  Mengqi Liu¹  Zhiye Chen²  Xin Li² 

[1] Department of Radiology, Hainan Hospital of PLA General Hospital, Sanya, China;Department of Radiology, Hainan Hospital of PLA General Hospital, Sanya, China;The Second School of Clinical Medicine, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China;

关键词: medication-overuse headache;    resting-state fMRI;    arterial spin labeling;    neurovascular coupling;    brain;    magnetic resonance imaging;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fnins.2023.1139086

 received in 2023-01-06, accepted in 2023-02-16,  发布年份 2023

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

AimStructural and functional changes in the brain have been identified in individuals with medication-overuse headache (MOH) using MRI. However, it has not been clearly established whether neurovascular dysfunction occurs in MOH, which could be elucidated by examining neurovascular coupling (NVC) from the viewpoints of neuronal activity and cerebral blood flow. The aim of this study was to investigate potential alterations in NVC function of the brain in individuals with MOH using resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) and 3D pseudo-continuous arterial spin labeling (3D PCASL) imaging techniques.MethodsA total of 40 patients with MOH and 32 normal controls (NCs) were recruited, and rs-fMRI and 3D PCASL data were obtained using a 3.0 T MR scanner. Standard preprocessing of the rs-fMRI data was performed to generate images representing regional homogeneity (ReHo), fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (fALFF), and degree centrality (DC); cerebral blood flow (CBF) images were generated using 3D PCASL sequence data. These functional maps were all normalized into Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) space, and NVC was subsequently determined on the basis of Pearson correlation coefficients between the rs-fMRI maps (ReHo, fALFF, and DC) and CBF maps. The statistical significance of differences between the MOH and NC groups in terms of NVC in different brain regions was established via Z-test. Further analysis was performed to examine correlations between NVC in the brain regions with NVC dysfunction and clinical variables among patients with MOH.ResultsNVC mainly presented a negative correlation in patients with MOH and NCs. No significant difference between the two groups was detected in terms of average NVC over the entire gray matter area. However, several brain regions with significantly decreased NVC in patients with MOH compared to NCs were identified: the left orbital region of the superior frontal gyrus, the bilateral gyrus rectus, and the olfactory cortex (P < 0.05). A correlation analysis revealed that the DC of the brain regions with NVC dysfunction was significantly positively correlated with disease duration (r = 0.323, P = 0.042), and DC–CBF connectivity was negatively correlated with VAS score (r = −0.424, P = 0.035).ConclusionThe current study demonstrated that cerebral NVC dysfunction occurs in patients with MOH, and the NVC technique could function as a new imaging biomarker in headache research.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
Copyright © 2023 Li, Liu, Fan, Xu and Chen.