Association of Pain and CNS Structural Changes After Spinal Cord Injury

Overview

Journal Sci Rep

Specialty Science

Date 2016 Jan 7

PMID 26732942

Citations 52

Authors

Catherine R Jutzeler

Eveline Huber

Martina F Callaghan

Roger Luechinger

Armin Curt

John L K Kramer

Patrick Freund

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) has been shown to trigger structural atrophic changes within the spinal cord and brain. However, the relationship between structural changes and magnitude of neuropathic pain (NP) remains incompletely understood. Voxel-wise analysis of anatomical magnetic resonance imaging data provided information on cross-sectional cervical cord area and volumetric brain changes in 30 individuals with chronic traumatic SCI and 31 healthy controls. Participants were clinically assessed including neurological examination and pain questionnaire. Compared to controls, individuals with SCI exhibited decreased cord area, reduced grey matter (GM) volumes in anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), left insula, left secondary somatosensory cortex, bilateral thalamus, and decreased white matter volumes in pyramids and left internal capsule. The presence of NP was related with smaller cord area, increased GM in left ACC and right M1, and decreased GM in right primary somatosensory cortex and thalamus. Greater GM volume in M1 was associated with amount of NP. Below-level NP-associated structural changes in the spinal cord and brain can be discerned from trauma-induced consequences of SCI. The directionality of these relationships reveals specific changes across the neuroaxis (i.e., atrophic changes versus increases in volume) and may provide substrates of underlying neural mechanisms in the development of NP.

Citing Articles

Immediate effect of alone and combined virtual reality, gait-like muscle vibration and transcranial direct current stimulation on neuropathic pain after spinal cord injury: a pilot study.

Sabalette P, Dube N, Menard P, Labelle M, Laramee M, Higgins J Spinal Cord Ser Cases. 2024; 10(1):83.

PMID: 39730369 PMC: 11680929. DOI: 10.1038/s41394-024-00696-5.

The possible neural mechanism of neuropathic pain evoked by motor imagery in pediatric patients with complete spinal cord injury: A preliminary brain structure study based on VBM.

Wang L, Chen X, Zheng W, Yang Y, Yang B, Chen Q Heliyon. 2024; 10(2):e24569.

PMID: 38312693 PMC: 10835172. DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e24569.

Exploring Functional Connectivity in Chronic Spinal Cord Injury Patients With Neuropathic Pain Versus Without Neuropathic Pain.

Mandloi S, Syed M, Ailes I, Shoraka O, Leiby B, Miao J Neurotrauma Rep. 2024; 5(1):16-27.

PMID: 38249324 PMC: 10797176. DOI: 10.1089/neur.2023.0070.

The gray matter atrophy and related network changes occur in the higher cognitive region rather than the primary sensorimotor cortex after spinal cord injury.

Chen X, Wang L, Zheng W, Yang Y, Yang B, Hu Y PeerJ. 2023; 11:e16172.

PMID: 37842067 PMC: 10569206. DOI: 10.7717/peerj.16172.

Spinal cord injury in mice amplifies anxiety: A novel light-heat conflict test exposes increased salience of anxiety over heat.

Lee S, Greenough E, Fonken L, Gaudet A Exp Neurol. 2023; 364:114382.

PMID: 36924982 PMC: 10874685. DOI: 10.1016/j.expneurol.2023.114382.

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