论文部分内容阅读
A reduction in gray matter volume is common in patients with chronic back pain, and different types of pain are associated with gray matter abnormalities in distinct brain regions. To examine ences in brain morphology in patients with low back pain or neck and upper back pain, we gated changes in gray matter volume in chronic back pain patients having different sites of pain using voxel-based morphometry. A reduction in cortical gray matter volume was found primarily in the left postcentral gyrus and in the left precuneus and bilateral cuneal cortex of patients with low back pain. In these patients, there was an increase in subcortical gray matter volume in the bilateral putamen and accumbens, right pal idum, right caudate nucleus, and left amygdala. In upper back pain patients, reduced cortical gray matter volume was found in the left precentral and left tral cortices. Our findings suggest that regional gray matter volume abnormalities in low back pain patients are more extensive than in upper back pain patients. Subcortical gray matter volume in-creases are found only in patients with low back pain.