Increased Left Putamen Volume Correlates With Pain in Ankylosing Spondylitis Patients.

Kelei Hua,Tianyue Wang,Tianwang Li,Meng Li,Guihua Jiang,Peijun Wang,Zhihong Lan,Xiaofen Ma,Wenkai Zhao,Shumei Li,Yi Yin,Chao Li,Shishun Fu,Jin Fang,Ping Liu

doi:10.3389/fneur.2020.607646

Abstract

Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) mainly affects the axial skeleton and is an important factor leading to chronic lower back pain in young individuals. However, few studies have explored alterations of brain gray matter volume in AS patients. The purpose of the present study was to describe brain gray matter abnormalities associated with AS pain. A total of 61 AS patients and 52 healthy controls (HCs) were included in this study. Using voxel-based morphometrics, we detected abnormal gray matter volume in AS patients. Based on the voxel-wise analysis, the gray matter volume in the left putamen of the AS group was increased significantly compared with that of the HC group. In addition, we found that the gray matter volume of the left putamen was positively correlated with the duration of AS and total back pain scores, whereas it was not significantly correlated with Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index scores, C-reactive protein, or erythrocyte sedimentation rate in AS patients. Taken together, our findings improve our understanding of the neural substrates of pain in AS and provide evidence of AS-related neurological impairment. Hence, further investigation of the pathophysiology of the left putamen in AS is warranted.

Highlights

Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is a chronic inflammatory rheumatic disease with unknown etiology that mainly affects the axial skeleton and is an important factor leading to chronic lower back pain in young individuals [1, 2]
We found that the gray matter volume of the left putamen was positively correlated with the duration of AS and total back pain scores, whereas it was not significantly correlated with Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index scores, C-reactive protein, or erythrocyte sedimentation rate in AS patients
Using Voxel-based morphometry (VBM), we explored differences in gray matter volume between AS patients and healthy controls (HCs)

Summary

Introduction

Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is a chronic inflammatory rheumatic disease with unknown etiology that mainly affects the axial skeleton and is an important factor leading to chronic lower back pain in young individuals [1, 2]. Accumulated findings from brain functional and Increased Putamen Volume in AS structural imaging studies have demonstrated that chronic pain may induce neurological impairment, such as chronic back pain [10], trigeminal neuralgia [11], and AS pain [12, 13]. These results highlight that chronic pain can arise from a variety of different pathological factors, among which the brain mechanisms of AS pain have remained unclear

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