Park Hyung G, Kenefati George, Rockholt Mika M, Ju Xiaomeng, Wu Rachel R, Chen Zhen Sage, Gonda Tamas A, Wang Jing, Doan Lisa V
Department of Population Health, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY, United States.
Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative Care and Pain Medicine, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY, United States.
medRxiv. 2025 Jun 16:2025.06.15.25329637. doi: 10.1101/2025.06.15.25329637.
Widespread hyperalgesia, characterized by pain sensitivity beyond the primary pain site, is a common yet under-characterized feature across chronic pain conditions, including chronic pancreatitis (CP). In this exploratory study, we identified a candidate neural biosignature of widespread hyperalgesia using high-density electroencephalography (EEG) in patients with chronic low back pain (cLBP). Specifically, stimulus-evoked delta, theta, and alpha oscillatory activity in the bilateral medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC) differentiated cLBP patients with widespread hyperalgesia from healthy controls. To examine cross-condition generalizability and advance predictive biomarker development for CP, we applied this mOFC-derived EEG biosignature to an independent cohort of patients with CP. The biosignature distinguished CP patients with widespread hyperalgesia and predicted individual treatment responses to peripherally targeted endoscopic therapy. These preliminary findings provide early support for a shared cortical signature of central sensitization across pain conditions and offer translational potential for developing EEG-based predictive tools for treatment response in CP.
广泛痛觉过敏的特征是疼痛敏感性超出原发疼痛部位，这是包括慢性胰腺炎（CP）在内的各种慢性疼痛病症中常见但特征描述不足的一个特点。在这项探索性研究中，我们利用高密度脑电图（EEG）在慢性下腰痛（cLBP）患者中识别出了广泛痛觉过敏的一种候选神经生物标志物。具体而言，双侧内侧眶额叶皮质（mOFC）中由刺激诱发的δ波、θ波和α波振荡活动可将患有广泛痛觉过敏的cLBP患者与健康对照区分开来。为了检验跨病症的通用性并推进CP的预测性生物标志物开发，我们将这种源自mOFC的EEG生物标志物应用于一个独立的CP患者队列。该生物标志物能够区分患有广泛痛觉过敏的CP患者，并预测个体对外周靶向内镜治疗的反应。这些初步发现为跨疼痛病症的中枢敏化的共同皮质特征提供了早期支持，并为开发基于EEG的CP治疗反应预测工具提供了转化潜力。
