Deficits in the thalamocortical pathway associated with hypersensitivity to pain in patients with frozen shoulder

Frontiers in Neurology

Neurology

Xu Chu¹  Jie Li²  Tengshuai Li²  Rui Zhao³  Jiaming Zhou³ 

[1] Department of Orthopaedics, Honghui Hospital, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xian, China;Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Tianjin Hospital, Tianjin, China;Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, China;

关键词: functional magnetic resonance imaging;    chronic pain;    frozen shoulder;    amplitude of low frequency fluctuation;    gray matter volume;    functional connectivity;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fneur.2023.1180873

 received in 2023-03-06, accepted in 2023-04-19,  发布年份 2023

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Background and purposeFrozen shoulder (FS) is a chronic pain condition and has been shown to be associated with pain sensitization. However, the underyling brain mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we aimed to explore brain alterations and their association with pain sensitization in patients with FS.Materials and methodsA total of 54 FS patients and 52 healthy controls (HCs) were included in this study. Here, we applied both structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques to investigate brain abnormalities in FS patients. Voxel-wise comparisons were performed to reveal the differences in the gray matter volume (GMV) and amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) between FS patients and HCs. Furthermore, the region of interest (ROI) to whole-brain functional connectivity (FC) was calculated and compared between groups. Finally, Pearson's correlation coefficients were computed to reveal the association between clinical data and brain alterations.ResultsFour main findings were observed: (1) FS patients exhibited decreased thalamus GMV, which correlated with pain intensity and pain threshold; (2) relative to HCs, FS patients exhibited a higher level of ALFF within the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the thalamus; (3) FS patients exhibited a significant increase in Tha-S1 FC compared to HCs; and (4) the effect of thalamus GMV on pain intensity was mediated by pain threshold in FS patients.ConclusionThe dysfunctional thalamus might induce pain hypersensitivity, which further aggravates the pain in FS patients.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
Copyright © 2023 Li, Li, Zhao, Zhou and Chu.