Liu Xiaomei, Xu Xianghong, Mao Cunnan, Zhang Peng, Zhang Qing, Jiang Lanlan, Yang Yuyin, Ma Jianhua, Ye Lei, Lee Kok-Onn, Wu Jindan, Yao Zhijian
Department of Endocrinology, Nanjing First Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210010, P.R. China.
Department of Endocrinology, The Affiliated Jiangning Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210000, P.R. China.
Exp Ther Med. 2021 May;21(5):509. doi: 10.3892/etm.2021.9940. Epub 2021 Mar 19.
Functional changes in the brain of patients with painful diabetic neuropathy (PDN) have remained largely elusive. The aim of the present study was to explore changes in thalamo-cortical functional connectivity (FC) of patients with PDN using resting-state functional MRI. A total of 20 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) with non-painful diabetic neuropathy (Group NDN), 19 patients with T2DM with PDN (Group-PDN) and 13 age-, sex- and education-matched healthy controls were recruited. The differences in thalamo-cortical FC among the three groups were compared. Patients in Group PDN had increased FC in the left thalamus, the right angular gyrus and the occipital gyrus as compared to those in Group NDN. Furthermore, patients in Group PDN had increased FC in the right thalamus and angular gyrus as compared to those in Group NDN. In conclusion, the present results suggested that the thalamo-cortical FC is increased in patients with T2DM and PDN. Furthermore, the increased FC in the thalamic-parietal-occipital connectivity may be a central pathophysiological mechanism for PDN. The study was retrospectively registered at ClinicalTrials.gov on 3 October 2018 (identifier no. NCT03700502).
疼痛性糖尿病神经病变（PDN）患者大脑中的功能变化在很大程度上仍不清楚。本研究的目的是使用静息态功能磁共振成像（MRI）探索PDN患者丘脑-皮质功能连接（FC）的变化。共招募了20例患有非疼痛性糖尿病神经病变的2型糖尿病（T2DM）患者（非疼痛性糖尿病神经病变组）、19例患有PDN的T2DM患者（PDN组）以及13名年龄、性别和教育程度相匹配的健康对照者。比较了三组之间丘脑-皮质FC的差异。与非疼痛性糖尿病神经病变组相比，PDN组患者左侧丘脑、右侧角回和枕叶的FC增加。此外，与非疼痛性糖尿病神经病变组相比，PDN组患者右侧丘脑和角回的FC增加。总之，目前的结果表明，T2DM和PDN患者的丘脑-皮质FC增加。此外，丘脑-顶叶-枕叶连接中FC的增加可能是PDN的一种核心病理生理机制。该研究于2018年10月3日在ClinicalTrials.gov上进行了回顾性注册（标识符编号：NCT03700502）。
