Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Volume 24, Issue 1 , Pages 75-79, January 2006

N-Acetylaspartate concentrations in the thalami of neuropathic pain patients and healthy comparison subjects measured with 1H-MRS

  • Sei Fukui

      Affiliations

    • Department of Anesthesiology, Shiga University of Medical Science, Tukinowa, Seta, Otsu, Shiga 520-2192, Japan
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author. Tel.: +81 77 548 2281; fax: +81 77 548 2781.
    • ,
  • Miyuki Matsuno

      Affiliations

    • Department of Anesthesiology, Shiga University of Medical Science, Tukinowa, Seta, Otsu, Shiga 520-2192, Japan
    • ,
  • Toshiro Inubushi

      Affiliations

    • Molecular Neuroscience Research Center, Shiga University of Medical Science, Seta, Otsu, Shiga 520-2192, Japan
    • ,
  • Shuichi Nosaka

      Affiliations

    • Department of Anesthesiology, Shiga University of Medical Science, Tukinowa, Seta, Otsu, Shiga 520-2192, Japan

Received 29 July 2005; accepted 18 October 2005. published online 19 December 2005.

Abstract 

We investigated the absolute concentration of N-acetylaspartate (NAA) in the thalami of neuropathic pain patients and healthy comparison subjects by single-voxel proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS).

1H-MRS was performed with a 1.5-T MR system on a voxel in the thalamus bilaterally in 9 neuropathic pain patients and 14 healthy control subjects.

We measured the absolute concentration of NAA using a linear combination model. The NAA concentration in the thalamus decreased significantly on the contralateral side in seven patients and on the ipsilateral side in two patients, as compared with the mean NAA concentration of the healthy control subjects. The NAA concentrations in two patients who did not respond to standard pain treatments were extremely decreased. Our results using 1H-MRS suggest that neuropathic pain seems to be associated with an abnormal balance of the neural activity in the thalamus. The NAA concentration of the thalamus may be related to the efficacy of therapy. 1H-MRS may serve as a useful noninvasive tool for evaluating thalamic neural activity in neuropathic pain patients.

Keywords: Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy, N-acetylaspartate, Neuropathic pain, Thalamus

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PII: S0730-725X(05)00316-4

doi:10.1016/j.mri.2005.10.021

Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Volume 24, Issue 1 , Pages 75-79, January 2006

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