Context: Little is understood about differences in resting neural activity among those with spinal cord injury (SCI)-related neuropathic pain. The purpose of this pilot study was to determine resting cerebral blood flow differences in persons with SCI-related neuropathic pain compared to healthy, pain-free able-bodied controls.

Methods: Five persons with paraplegia and ten able-bodied participants were included in this study. Resting blood flow, as measured by a continuous arterial spin labeling (ASL) method of fMRI, was analyzed via statistical parametric mapping.

Results: Persons with SCI-related neuropathic pain had significantly lower resting blood flow in the cerebellum (Crus I/II), rostral ventromedial medulla and left insular cortex. In contrast, greater resting blood flow occurred in the medial orbitofrontal cortex among those with SCI-related neuropathic pain compared to controls.

Conclusion: Differences in resting blood flow were observed among those with SCI-related pain, particularly in regions that may be involved in affective-motivational and cognitive-evaluative aspects of pain. Larger ASL studies in addition to functional connectivity studies using fMRI are needed to clarify unique neural patterns in this complex and often intractable form of pain.

背景：对脊髓损伤 (SCI) 相关神经性疼痛患者静息神经活动的差异知之甚少。这项初步研究的目的是确定与健康、无痛、健全的对照组相比，患有 SCI 相关神经性疼痛的人的静息脑血流量差异。

方法：本研究包括 5 名截瘫患者和 10 名身体健全的参与者。通过连续动脉自旋标记 (ASL) 的 fMRI 方法测量的静息血流量通过统计参数映射进行分析。

结果：患有 SCI 相关神经性疼痛的人小脑 (Crus I/II)、延髓腹内侧和左岛叶皮层的静息血流量显着降低。相比之下，与对照组相比，患有 SCI 相关神经性疼痛的患者的内侧眶额叶皮层的静息血流量更大。

结论：在 SCI 相关疼痛患者中观察到静息血流量的差异，特别是在可能涉及疼痛的情感-动机和认知-评估方面的区域。除了使用 fMRI 进行功能连接研究之外，还需要更大规模的 ASL 研究来阐明这种复杂且通常难以治疗的疼痛形式中的独特神经模式。