Biomedical Engineering, Calgary, AB, Canada.
McCaig Institute for Bone and Joint Health, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada.
Brain Imaging Behav. 2024 Aug;18(4):875-883. doi: 10.1007/s11682-024-00876-9. Epub 2024 Apr 1.
Chronic headache (persistent or recurrent headache for 3-months or longer) is highly prevalent among youth. While sleep disturbances have been associated with headache, their inter-relationship with brain connectivity remains unknown. This observational study examined whether self-report and actigraphy measures of sleep were associated with alterations to white matter tracts (i.e., uncinate fasciculus and cingulum) in youth with chronic headache versus healthy controls. Thirty youth aged 10-18 years with chronic headache and thirty controls underwent an MRI. Diffusion tensor images were obtained and mean fractional anisotropy values of the cingulum and uncinate were extracted. One-week prior to their MRI, youth wore an actigraph to obtain sleep duration, wake after sleep onset and sleep efficiency measures. Moreover, they completed questionnaires regarding their sleep quality and pain symptomatology. Linear regression was applied to examine the relationships between sleep (self-report and actigraphy), fractional anisotropy, and number of headache days per month. Self-report and actigraphy measures of sleep did not differ between patients and controls. However, poorer self-reported sleep quality was associated with lower fractional anisotropy values in the left uncinate (P = 0.05). Lower left uncinate fractional anisotropy was related to increased headache frequency (P = 0.002) in youth with chronic headache. Therefore, alterations to connectivity may be associated with the relationship between altered perceptions of sleep and headache chronicity.
慢性头痛（持续或反复发作头痛 3 个月或更长时间）在年轻人中高发。尽管睡眠障碍与头痛有关，但它们与大脑连通性的相互关系尚不清楚。本观察性研究旨在探讨自我报告和活动记录仪测量的睡眠与慢性头痛青年与健康对照组之间白质束（即钩束和扣带束）改变的关系。30 名 10-18 岁的慢性头痛青年和 30 名对照者接受 MRI 检查。获得弥散张量图像，并提取扣带束和钩束的平均分数各向异性值。在 MRI 检查前一周，青年佩戴活动记录仪以获取睡眠持续时间、睡眠后觉醒和睡眠效率的测量值。此外，他们还完成了关于睡眠质量和疼痛症状的问卷。线性回归用于检验睡眠（自我报告和活动记录仪）、分数各向异性和每月头痛天数之间的关系。患者和对照组之间的睡眠（自我报告和活动记录仪）测量值没有差异。然而，自我报告的睡眠质量较差与左侧钩束的分数各向异性值较低有关（P=0.05）。在慢性头痛的青年中，左侧钩束的分数各向异性值较低与头痛频率增加（P=0.002）有关。因此，连通性的改变可能与睡眠知觉改变与头痛慢性之间的关系有关。
