PURPOSE: Interstitial cystitis (IC) is a highly prevalent pain condition, estimated to affect 3-6% of women in the United States.
Emerging data suggests there are central neurobiological components to the etiology of this disease. Here we report the first brain structural imaging findings from the Multidisciplinary Approach to Pelvic Pain (MAPP) network, with data on over 300 participants.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: We used Voxel-Based Morphometry (VBM) to determine whether human patients with chronic IC display changes in brain morphology as compared to healthy controls (HCs). 33 female IC patients without comorbidities and 33 age- and sex-matched controls, taken from the larger sample, underwent structural magnetic resonance imaging at 5 different MAPP sites across the United States.
RESULTS: When compared to controls, females with IC displayed significant increased gray matter (GM) volume in several regions of the brain including the right primary somatosensory cortex (S1), the superior parietal lobule bilaterally, and the right supplementary motor area. GM volume in the right S1 was associated with greater pain, mood (anxiety), and urological symptoms. We explored these correlations in a linear regression model and found independent effects of these three measures on S1 GM volume: clinical pain (McGill pain sensory total), a measure of "urgency," and anxiety (HADS).
CONCLUSIONS: These data support the notion that changes in somatosensory GM may play an important role in pain sensitivity as well as affective and sensory aspects of IC. Further studies are needed to confirm the generalizability of these findings to other pain conditions.
Written by:
Kairys AE, Schmidt-Wilcke T, Puiu T, Ichesco E, Labus JS, Martucci K, Farmer MA, Ness TJ, Deutsch G, Mayer EA, Mackey S, Apkarian AV, Maravilla K, Clauw DJ, Harris RE. Are you the author?
Department of Anesthesiology, Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Center, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA, 48106; Department of Neurology, Bergmannsheil, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany; Gail and Gerald Oppenheimer Family Center for Neurobiology of Stress, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA, 90095; Department of Anesthesiology, Division of Pain Medicine, Stanford University Medical Center, Stanford, CA, USA, 94063; Department of Physiology, Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, 303 E. Chicago Avenue, Chicago, IL, USA, 60611; Departments of Radiology and Anesthesiology, University of Alabama, Birmingham Medical Center, USA, 35249; Department of Radiology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA, 98195.
Reference: J Urol. 2014 Aug 14. pii: S0022-5347(14)04213-X.
doi: 10.1016/j.juro.2014.08.042
PubMed Abstract
PMID: 25132239
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