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Middle cingulate cortex function contributes to response to non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug in cervical spondylosis patients: a preliminary resting-state fMRI study

  • Functional Neuroradiology
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A Correction to this article was published on 27 May 2022

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Abstract

Background and objective

Cervical spondylosis (CS) is often accompanied by persistent cervical pain, and psychological complications including depression and anxiety, which aggravate pain. Past studies have revealed brain alterations in chronic pain patients. However, the cortical mechanism for NSAID (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug) responders relative to non-responders is still lacking. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the brain functional differences between responders to NSAID relative to non-responders using amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) and dynamic functional connectivity variance (DFCV). To our knowledge, our study is the first to investigate the DFCV in CS patients.

Materials and methods

We first explored the differences in psychological inventories in CS patients who respond to NSAID vs non-responders. The voxel-wise ALFF was calculated and compared between CS patients and healthy controls. The ALFF within the resultant clusters were extracted and compared between responders and non-responders. DFCV among the resulting clusters was compared in responders vs non-responders.

Results

We found that (1) compared to responders, non-responders exhibited higher levels of anxiety and depression; (2) relative to healthy controls, CS patients exhibited altered ALFF within the middle cingulate cortice (MCC), cerebellum, and middle frontal gyrus (MFG); (3) moreover, compared with responders, non-responders exhibited lower ALFF within MCC; furthermore, non-responders also exhibited increased DFCV between MCC and cerebellum, and between MCC and MFG.

Conclusion

Our data indicate that psychological comorbidities (e.g., anxiety) influence response to NSAID in CS patients. Relative to NSAID responders, non-responders had altered MCC function, which may be associated with anxiety in CS patients.

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Code availability

The codes used in this study can be availed upon reasonable request.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Orthopaedics, The Second People’s Hospital of Fuyang City, Fu Yang, 236000, China

    Liang Bai, Lei Zhang, Yong Chen, Yang Li, Dongya Ma, Wei Li, Yong Meng, Yaowei Zhao, Yemi Wang, Qingliang Zeng & Quankui Zhuang

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  1. Liang Bai
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  4. Yang Li
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Contributions

Zhuang Quankui and Bai Liang designed the study. Li Wei, Meng Yong, Zhao Yaowei, Wang Yemi, and Zeng Qingliang collected the data. Bai Liang, Li Yang, and Ma Dongya analyzed the data. Bai Liang, Zhang Lei, and Chen Yong wrote the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Quankui Zhuang.

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Written informed consent was obtained from all subjects in this study.

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The original online version of this article was revised: Originally, the article has been published online with inverted author names. This has been corrected above.

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Bai, L., Zhang, L., Chen, Y. et al. Middle cingulate cortex function contributes to response to non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug in cervical spondylosis patients: a preliminary resting-state fMRI study. Neuroradiology 64, 1401–1410 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00234-022-02964-3

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