Evidence map›Paper›PMID 30324850›Full record

ArticleMolecular pain

Pain-related white matter tract abnormalities in mild traumatic brain injury patients with persistent headache.

Albert Leung, Eric Yang, Michael Lim, Valerie Metzger-Smith, Rebecca Theilmann, David Song, Lisa Lin, Alice Tsai, Roland Lee

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Molecular pain. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
19citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
2.3field-weighted citation impact, top 11% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

19 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 26 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Trial
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Phenotyping Pain in Patients With Fibrous Dysplasia/McCune-Albright Syndrome.The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism · 2024
    Article
  7. Review
  8. Review
  9. Brainstem Diffusion Tensor Tractography and Clinical Applications in Pain.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2022
    Review
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Review
  15. The Relation between Persistent Post-Traumatic Headache and PTSD: Similarities and Possible Differences.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020
    Review
  16. Article
  17. Article
  18. Review
  19. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Albert Leung1 Division of Pain Medicine, Department of Anesthesiology, The University of California, San Diego, CA, USA.
Eric Yang3 The University of California, San Diego, CA, USA.
Michael Lim3 The University of California, San Diego, CA, USA.
Valerie Metzger-Smith2 Veteran Affairs San Diego Healthcare System, CA, USA.
Rebecca Theilmann4 Department of Radiology, The University of California, San Diego, CA, USA.
David Song2 Veteran Affairs San Diego Healthcare System, CA, USA.
Lisa Lin2 Veteran Affairs San Diego Healthcare System, CA, USA.
Alice Tsai2 Veteran Affairs San Diego Healthcare System, CA, USA.
Roland Lee2 Veteran Affairs San Diego Healthcare System, CA, USA.
VA San Diego Healthcare System · USUniversity of California, San Diego · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundThe occurrence of debilitating chronic persistent (24/7) headache after mild traumatic brain injury represents a central neuropathic pain state. Previous studies suggest that this chronic headache state can be attributed to altered supraspinal modulatory functional connectivity in both resting and evoked pain states. Abnormalities in the myelin sheaths along the supraspinal superior longitudinal fasciculus and anterior thalamic radiation are frequently associated with alteration in pain modulation related to functional connectivity deficit with the prefrontal cortex. This study assessed the correlated axonal injury-related white matter tract abnormality underlying these previously observed prefrontal functional connectivity deficits by comparing the fractional anisotropy, axial diffusivity, and radial diffusivity of brain white matter in patients with mild traumatic brain injury-related headache to healthy controls.

resultDiffusion tensor imaging data from patients ( N = 12, average age ±  SD = 35.0 ± 8.0 years old, 10 male) with mild traumatic brain injury-headache were compared with images acquired from healthy controls. The mild traumatic brain injury cohort demonstrated two areas of significant ( P < 0.01, F value >16, cluster size >50 voxels) white matter tract abnormalities closely related to pain affective and modulatory functions in (1) the left superior longitudinal fasciculus which connects the prefrontal cortices with the parietal cortices and (2) the right anterior thalamic radiation connecting the prefrontal cortices with the anterior cingulate cortex. In addition, a significant ( P < 0.01) decrease in axial diffusivity and increase in radial diffusivity at the superior longitudinal fasciculus cluster were noted in the mild traumatic brain injury cohort.

conclusionThe identified white matter tract abnormalities may represent a state of Wallerian degeneration which correlates with the functional connectivity deficit in pain modulation and can contribute to the development of the chronic persistent headache in the patients with mild traumatic brain injury.

Indexed as

AdultAnisotropyBrain Injuries, TraumaticDiffusion Tensor ImagingFemaleHeadacheHumansMaleMiddle AgedNeuralgiaWhite Matterdiffusion tensor imagingMild traumatic brain injurypain modulationpost-traumatic headachetraumatic brain injury

Identifiers

PMID30324850
PMCPMC6311536
OpenAlexW2897752759

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY-NC
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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.