Regional homogeneity alterations in subjects with low back pain disorders: a resting-state fMRI study

Objective To explore the characteristics of the brain regional homogeneity (ReHo)alterations in patients with low back pain disorders using resting-state functianal magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).Methods Resting-sate fMRI 3.0T scans were separately performed on 15 age-and gender-matched healthy subjects at rest as baseline and during pain of the back muscle (intramuscular injection of 3 g/L hypertonic saline).The ReHo maps were analyzed with paired t-test to compare the changes between the pain and healthy status.Results As compared with the health subjects,the subjects with low back pain showed significantly increased ReHo levels in the bilateral medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC),left inferior frontal gyrus,right middle frontal gyrus,cerebellum posterior lobe-cerebellar tonsil,right pons,fight insula,right caudate,right precuneus,fight parahippocampa gyrus and posterior cingulate gyrus,and decreased ReHo levels in the right superior temporal gyrus,left middle temporal gyrus,left precentral gyrus,left postcentral gyrus,left parahippocampa gyrus,left fusiform gyrus,left anterior cingulate,left superior parietal lobule,right inferior parietal lobule (P＜0.005,cluster threshold ≥10).Consulsion People with low back pain show abnormal spontaneous activity in certain brain regions. Key words: Pain; Resting-state; Functional magnetic resonance imaging; Regional homogeneity