Dynamic local metrics changes in patients with toothache: A resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging study

Abstract

Objective: To study the dynamic changes of local metrics in patients with toothache (TA, Toothache) in the resting state, in order to further understand the changes of central neural mechanism in patients with dental pain and its effect on cognition and emotion.

Methods: Thirty patients with TA and thirty matched healthy (HC) control volunteers were recruited, and resting-state functional magnetic resonance (rs-MRI) scans were performed on all subjects, and data were analyzed to compare group differences in three dynamic local indices: dynamic regional homogeneity (dReHO), dynamic low-frequency fluctuation amplitude (dALFF) and dynamic fractional low-frequency fluctuation amplitude (dfALFF). In addition, the association between dynamic local metrics in different brain regions of TA patients and scores on the Visual Analog Scale (VAS) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) was investigated by Pearson correlation analysis.

Results: In this study, we found that The local metrics of TA patients changed with time Compared with the HC group, TA patients showed increased dReHo values in the left superior temporal gyrus, middle frontal gyrus, precentral gyrus, precuneus, angular gyrus, right superior frontal gyrus, middle temporal gyrus, postcentral gyrus and middle frontal gyrus, increased dALFF values in the right superior frontal gyrus, and increased dfALFF values in the right middle temporal gyrus, middle frontal gyrus and right superior occipital gyrus (p < 0.01, cluster level P < 0.05). Pearson correlation analysis showed that dReHo values of left precuneus and left angular gyrus were positively correlated with VAS scores in TA group. dReHo value of right posterior central gyrus was positively correlated with HADS score (P < 0.05).

Conclusion: There are differences in the patterns of neural activity changes in resting-state brain areas of TA patients, and the brain areas that undergo abnormal changes are mainly pain processing brain areas, emotion processing brain areas and pain cognitive modulation brain areas, which help to reveal their underlying neuropathological mechanisms. In the hope of further understanding its effects on cognition and emotion.

Keywords: dynamic local metrics; pain; pathological mechanism; resting-state functional magnetic resonance; toothache.

Figure 1

(A,B) The differences in dReHo between the TA patients and HCs (after GRF correction voxel-wise p < 0.01, cluster-wise p < 0.05, two-tailed). The color bar indicates the t-value. d-ReHo, dynamic regional homogeneity; HCs, healthy controls; TA, toothache; MNI, Montreal Neurological Institute.

Figure 2

(A,B) The differences in dALFF between the TA patients and HCs (after GRF correction voxel-wise p < 0.01, cluster-wise p < 0.05, two-tailed). The color bar indicates the t-value. d-ALFF, dynamic low-frequency fluctuation amplitude; HCs, healthy controls; TA, toothache; MNI, Montreal Neurological Institute.

Figure 3

(A,B) The differences in dfALFF between the TA patients and HCs (after GRF correction voxel-wise p < 0.01, cluster-wise p < 0.05, two-tailed). The color bar indicates the t-value. d-ALFF, dynamic fractional low-frequency fluctuation amplitude; HCs, healthy controls; TA, toothache; MNI, Montreal Neurological Institute.

Figure 4

The correlation between local dynamic metrics in abnormal brain areas and clinical variables in patients with TA. (A) The left angular (r = 0.4 I and P = 0.02) dReHo values were significantly and positively correlated with the visual analog scale (VAS). (B) The left precuneus (r = 0.36 and P = 0.0.04) dReHo values were significantly and positively correlated with the visual analog scale (VAS). (C) The right postcentral gyrus (r = 0.82 and p < 0.01) dReHo value was significantly and positively correlated with the Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale score (HADS).

Figure 5

A demonstration chart of the impact of toothache on life.