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Distinctive cortical morphological patterns in primary trigeminal neuralgia: a cross-sectional clinical study

  • Advanced Neuroimaging
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose

The characteristics of surface-based morphological patterns to primary trigeminal neuralgia (PTN) are still not well understood. This study aims to screen the useful cortical indices for the prediction of PTN and the quantification of pain severity.

Methods

Fifty PTN patients and 48 matched healthy subjects enrolled in the study from March 2016 to August 2021. High-resolution T1 data were performed at 3.0 Tesla scanner and were analyzed with FreeSurfer software to detect the abnormalities of cortical mean curve (CMC), cortical thickness (CT), surface area (SA), and cortical volume (CV) in PTN patients compared to healthy controls. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to determine whether certain morphological patterns could predict PTN disorder. Then, the relationships of cortical indices to the pain characteristics in patient group were examined using linear regression model.

Results

Distinctive cortical alterations were discovered through surface-based analysis, including increased temporal CMC, decreased insular CT and fusiform SA, along with decreased CV in several temporal and occipital areas. Moreover, the difference of temporal CMC was greater than other cortical parameters between the two groups, and the combination of certain morphological indices was of good value in the diagnosis for PTN. Besides, CT of left insula was negatively associated with the pain intensity in PTN patients.

Conclusion

The patients with PTN demonstrate distinctive morphological patterns in several cortical regions, which may contribute to the imaging diagnosis of this refractory disorder and be useful for the quantification of the orofacial pain.

Clinical trials

The registry name of this study in https://clinicaltrials.gov/: Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study on Patients with Trigeminal Neuralgia (MRI-TN)

https://clinicaltrials.gov/ ID: NCT02713646

A link to the full application: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/results?cond=&term=NCT02713646&cntry=&state=&city=&dist=

The first patient with primary trigeminal neuralgia was recruited on November 28, 2016.

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Data Availability

All relevant data are within the manuscript and no additional data are available.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. Jing Zhang for editing the draft of this manuscript.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 82171909) and the Key Research and Development Program of Shaanxi (No. 2021SF-091).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Imaging, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, 710061, Shaanxi, China

    Hui Xu, Yang Liu, Wen-tao Zeng, Yu-xin Fan & Yuan Wang

  2. School of Mental Health, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, 325035, China

    Hui Xu

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  1. Hui Xu
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  2. Yang Liu
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  3. Wen-tao Zeng
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Correspondence to Yuan Wang.

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This study was approved and consented by the Ethics Committee of the First Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in this study.

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Xu, H., Liu, Y., Zeng, Wt. et al. Distinctive cortical morphological patterns in primary trigeminal neuralgia: a cross-sectional clinical study. Neuroradiology 66, 207–216 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00234-023-03257-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00234-023-03257-z

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