ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the alterations of regional spontaneous activity in patients with classical trigeminal neuralgia (CTN) during resting state.Methods Twenty-seven patients with CTN (CTN group) and 27 healthy subjects (control group) were recruited and underwent a rest-state functional MRI.The regional homogeneity (ReHo) analysis was used to compare the differences of regional synchronization of spontaneous brain activity.And correlation tests were performed between ReHo values in the abnormal brain areas and clinical metrics (visual analogue scale and disease duration) of the disease.Results Compared with control group (P＜0.05,Gaussian random field correction),ReHo increased in bilateral primary somatosensory cortex (S1) and primary motor cortex (M1),right supplementary motor area (SMA),inferotemporal cortex and cerebellum,left thalamus,limbic lobe,parahippocampa gyrus,middle and superior temporal gyrus in CTN group;ReHo decreased in bilateral insula,prefrontal cortex and orbitofrontal cortex,right frontal medial cortex and superior temporal gyrus,left anterior cingulate area,supramarginal gyrus and cerebellum in CTN group.ReHo values in right frontal medial cortex was negatively correlated with the course of disease (r=-0.45,P=0.03).The ReHo values of left primary sensorimotor cortex were positively correlated with the visual analogue scale scores (r=0.46,P=0.02).Conclusion CTN patients has abnormal functional homogeneity of spontaneous brain activity in regions involved in the pain processing,which can help understanding mechanism of CTN.