Patients with persistent low back-related leg pain exhibited significant alterations in local brain connectivity in the right cerebellum posterior lobe, brainstem, left medial prefrontal cortex, and bilateral precuneus compared to healthy controls.
Case-Control (n=51)
No
Does persistent low back-related leg pain alter local connectivity properties in the resting brain connectome compared to healthy controls?
Persistent low back-related leg pain is associated with significant alterations in local brain connectivity in specific frequency bands, which correlate with pain duration.
p-value: p=<0.01
Increasing evidence has suggested that central plasticity plays a crucial role in the development and maintenance of (chronic) nonspecific low back pain. However, it is unclear how local or short-distance functional interactions contribute to persisting low back-related leg pain (LBLP) due to a specific condition (i.e., lumbar disc herniation). In particular, the multiscale nature of local connectivity properties in various brain regions is still unclear. Here, we used voxelwise Kendall's coefficient of concordance (KCC) and coherence (Cohe) regional homogeneity (ReHo) in the typical (0.01-0.1 Hz) and five specific frequency (slow-6 to slow-2) bands to analyze individual whole-brain resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scans in 25 persistent LBLP patients (duration: 36.7 ± 9.6 months) and 26 healthy control subjects. Between-group differences demonstrated significant alterations in the KCC- and Cohe- ReHo of the right cerebellum posterior lobe, brainstem, left medial prefrontal cortex and bilateral precuneus in LBLP patients in the typical and five specific frequency bands, respectively, along with interactions between disease status and the five specific frequency bands in several regions of the pain matrix and the default-mode network (P < .01, Gaussian random field theory correction). The altered ReHo in the five specific frequency bands was correlated with the duration of pain and two-point discrimination, which were assessed using partial correlational analysis. These results linked the course of disease to the local connectivity properties in specific frequency bands in persisting LBLP. In future studies exploring local connectome association in pain conditions, integrated frequency bands and analytical methods should be considered.
Zhou et al. (Tue,) conducted a case-control in Low back-related leg pain (LBLP) (n=51). None (Observational) vs. Healthy controls was evaluated on Alterations in Kendall's coefficient of concordance (KCC) and coherence (Cohe) regional homogeneity (ReHo) (p=<0.01). Patients with persistent low back-related leg pain exhibited significant alterations in local brain connectivity in the right cerebellum posterior lobe, brainstem, left medial prefrontal cortex, and bilateral precuneus compared to healthy controls.