VBM in chronic pain with sensory deficit

Disciplines

Clinical Medicine (90%); Medical-Theoretical Sciences, Pharmacy (10%)

Keywords

Chronic Pain, Voxel-Based Morphometry, Pain Matrix, MRI, Neuroplasticity, Non Dermatomal Sensory Deficit

Abstract

In 20-40% of chronic pain patients ipsilateral hemihypaesthesia is experienced without any pathological findings in standard investigations, a phenomenon termed non-dermatomal sensory deficit (NDSD). Although differences in cortical activation between perceived and unperceived stimuli have been demonstrated using functional MRI, a pathophysiological concept explaining this phenomenon still has to be elaborated, and the phenomenon is generally regarded as non-organic. The objective of this study is to search for subtle differences in brain morphology between chronic pain patients with and without NDSD. Voxel-based morphometry, a highly sensitive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) tool to assess subtle anatomical differences between groups of subjects, will be used.