[Neuroimaging in fibromyalgia].

INTRODUCTION

Most current research suggests that fibromyalgia is a disease produced by an alteration in the processing of pain signals in the central nervous system. In recent years, advances in non- or minimally-invasive brain imaging techniques have made it possible to discover how different areas of the nervous system are involved in the aetiopathogenesis of diseases that up until now have been considered as having a functional profile.

AIM

To describe the objectified functional and the structural changes that take place in the brains of patients with fibro-myalgia by means of the currently available neuroimaging techniques.

DEVELOPMENT

This work reviews the clinical studies, both anatomical and molecular, that have been conducted to date in the field of fibromyalgia using different brain imaging techniques.

CONCLUSIONS

Different, but related, areas of the central nervous system have been described as altering not only the functional but also the structural form, in patients with fibromyalgia. These involved areas extend beyond the pain circuits, which would explain the variety of symptoms in patients, in addition to the characteristic pain reported by them.