Giuseppe Magro (Italy)
Department of Health Sciences, University "Magna Græcia" of Catanzaro, Catanzaro, Italy. NeurologyAuthor Of 1 Presentation
MICROSTRUCTURAL ALTERATIONS OF THE SPINOTHALAMIC TRACT AND NEUROPATHIC PAIN: A DIFFUSION TENSOR IMAGING STUDY IN RELAPSING REMITTING MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS
- Alessia Sarica (Italy)
Abstract
Background and Aims:
Neuropathic pain (NP) is frequently underestimated in Multiple Sclerosis (MS). The aim of this work is to evaluate for the first time the relationship between NP and spinothalamic tract (STT) microstructural integrity in Relapsing Remitting MS (RR-MS) patients through tractography reconstruction from Diffusion Tensor Imaging.
Methods:
A cohort of 35 RR-MS patients, and 15 healthy controls was enrolled and acquired on 3T scanner, including T1, T2, FLAIR and DTI. All participants underwent a complete clinical comprising pain evaluation (DN4) and cognitive assessment. Five ROIs (Fig1.A) were manually traced on controls DTI to obtain STT probabilistic masks, and to create STT template (Fig1.B). Diffusion metrics (FA, MD, AD, RD) of all participants were extracted from template and their laterality index (LI). ANCOVA corrected for age and gender was used for comparing the STT diffusion LI between controls and patients, while partial correlation was employed for assessing the relationships between alterations in LI and clinical/cognitive scores (p <0.05).
Results:
Results of the ANCOVA were reported in Fig2.A. The LI of FA was significant higher in RR-MS patients than controls (Fig2.B). Moreover, there was a positive correlation between the LI of MD and AD and FSS and between LI of MD, AD and RD with DN4 (Fig.2.C).
Conclusions:
We demonstrated that RR-MS patients had higher asymmetry than controls and more interestingly this abnormal STT laterality had a significant association with higher levels of fatigue and NP. In conclusion, we provided a first evidence of neuroanatomic correlate of the NP in RR-MS with STT microstructural alterations.