Abnormal white matter microstructure along the thalamus fiber pathways in women with primary dysmenorrhea
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ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Abnormal white matter microstructure along the thalamus fiber pathways in women with primary dysmenorrhea Juan He 1 & Wanghuan Dun 1 & Fang Han 2 & Ke Wang 2 & Jing Yang 2 & Shaohui Ma 2 & Ming Zhang 1,2 & Jixin Liu 3 & Hongjuan Liu 4 Accepted: 7 September 2020 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Primary dysmenorrhea (PDM) is a cyclic menstrual pain in the absence of pelvic anomalies, and women with PDM have an increased sensitivity to pain than the internal and external areas associated with menstrual pain. However, the brain abnormality in the ascending pain pathways in dysmenorrhea remains largely unclear. As the thalamus plays a significant role in transmission of nociceptive input, we examined whether white matter microstructure of the thalamus-related fiber tracts obtained by DTI in women with PDM (n = 47) differs from healthy controls. A novel tractography atlas-based analysis method that detects tract integrity and altered microstructural properties along selected fibers was employed. The fiber bundles of interest contained the thalamus- primary somatosensory cortex (SI), thalamus- dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC)/supplementary motor area (SMA), thalamus-insula, and thalamus-ACC. As compared with controls, abnormal white matter microstructures were found along the thalamusrelated white matter fiber tracts. Additionally, the intensity of menstrual pain was significantly associated with diffusion measures of thalamus-SI fiber connections. Our study suggested that the thalamus-related pain processing pathways had altered white matter integrity that persisted beyond the time of menstruation, and the white matter microstructure of the thalamus-SI pathways was closely related to menstrual pain in the intensity by women with PDM. Keywords White matter . Dysmenorrhea . TABS; t\Thalamus . Primary somatosensory cortex
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-020-00400-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Jixin Liu [email protected]
Shaohui Ma [email protected]
* Hongjuan Liu [email protected] Juan He [email protected]
Ming Zhang [email protected] 1
Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, First Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China
2
Department of Medical Imaging, First Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China
3
School of Life Science and Technology, Xidian University, Xi’an, China
4
Department of Intensive Care Unit, First Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China
Wanghuan Dun [email protected] Fang Han [email protected] Ke Wang [email protected] Jing Yang [email protected]
Brain Imaging and Behavior
Introduction Primary dysmenorrhea (PDM), defined as pain associated with menstruation, without any discernable macroscopic pelvic pathology, is a significant public health problem for adolescents and young females (Li et al. 2015; Ju et al. 2014; Be
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