Structural brain alterations and changes in resting-state functional connectivity in patients with trigeminal neuralgia: A meta-analysis

IF 3.4 2区医学 Q2 NEUROIMAGING

Neuroimage-Clinical Pub Date : 2025-01-01 DOI:10.1016/j.nicl.2025.103759

Lapo Nardoni , Maria Giulia Tullo , Giulia Di Stefano , Marco Fiorelli , Francesca Caramia

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background

Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) is a chronic pain condition characterized by severe, electric shock-like pain in one or more branches of the trigeminal nerve. Even though neuroimaging studies have highlighted alterations in brain cortical and subcortical structure and functional connectivity, findings are heterogeneous.

Objective

This meta-analysis aims to synthesize structural and functional brain changes in TN patients through a coordinate-based meta-analysis using GingerALE.

Methods

A search on PubMed, Google Scholar, and Scopus was conducted to select pertinent publications on structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) (brain volume and cortical thickness) and resting-state functional MRI in TN patients that were published before January 2024. Activation likelihood estimation (ALE) was used to identify consistent brain alteration patterns across studies.

Results

A total of 1436 papers were identified and, after review based on the predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria, 13 papers (538 patients) discussing structural brain changes and 11 studies (368 patients) discussing resting-state functional connectivity studies were selected for inclusion. Structural and functional alterations in TN were observed in the left thalamus.

Conclusions

This meta-analysis provides a comprehensive examination of structural and functional abnormalities in TN patients, highlighting consistent alterations in left thalamus. Future research should identify brain structural and functional changes specific for TN as compared to other forms of chronic pain, explore longitudinal changes correlated to clinical parameters, and perform intra-population studies to address lateralization, to enhance diagnostic and therapeutic outcomes for TN patients.

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来源期刊

Neuroimage-Clinical NEUROIMAGING-

CiteScore

7.50

自引率

4.80%

发文量

368

审稿时长

52 days

期刊介绍： NeuroImage: Clinical, a journal of diseases, disorders and syndromes involving the Nervous System, provides a vehicle for communicating important advances in the study of abnormal structure-function relationships of the human nervous system based on imaging. The focus of NeuroImage: Clinical is on defining changes to the brain associated with primary neurologic and psychiatric diseases and disorders of the nervous system as well as behavioral syndromes and developmental conditions. The main criterion for judging papers is the extent of scientific advancement in the understanding of the pathophysiologic mechanisms of diseases and disorders, in identification of functional models that link clinical signs and symptoms with brain function and in the creation of image based tools applicable to a broad range of clinical needs including diagnosis, monitoring and tracking of illness, predicting therapeutic response and development of new treatments. Papers dealing with structure and function in animal models will also be considered if they reveal mechanisms that can be readily translated to human conditions.