Diffusivity parameters of diffusion tensor imaging and apparent diffusion coefficient as imaging markers for predicting the treatment response of patients with trigeminal neuralgia

Yu Li Lee, Shu Tian Chen, Jen Tsung Yang, Hsu Huei Weng, Hsueh Lin Wang, Yuan Hsiung Tsai*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal Article peer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

Objective: Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) is facial pain that is usually caused by neurovascular compression syndrome and is characterized by suddenly intense and paroxysmal pain. Radiofrequency lesioning (RFL) is one of the major treatments for TN, but the treatment response for RFL is sometimes inconsistent, and the recurrence of TN is not uncommon. This study aimed to estimate the outcome predictors of TN treated with RFL by using the parameters of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Methods: Fifty-one patients with TN who were treated with RFL were enrolled in the study. MRI was performed in all patients within 1 week before surgery. The visual analog scale was used to evaluate symptom severity at three time points: before, 1 week after, and 3 months after RFL. The involved cisternal segment of the trigeminal nerves was manually selected, and the histograms of each of the diffusivity metrics-including the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), fractional anisotropy (FA), axial diffusivity (AD), and radial diffusivity (RD)-were measured. The differences in the means, as well as the kurtosis and skewness of each of the diffusivity metrics between the nonrecurrent and recurrent groups, were then analyzed using the Mann-Whitney U-test. Results: There were significantly lower kurtosis values (a broader peak of the distributional curves) for both FA and ADC in the recurrent group (p = 0.0004 and 0.015, respectively), compared to the nonrecurrent group. The kurtoses of AD and RD, as well as the mean and skewness of all other diffusivity metrics, did not show significant differences between the two groups. Conclusions: The pretreatment diffusivity metrics of DTI and ADC may be feasible imaging biomarkers for predicting the outcome of TN after RFL. A clarification of the kurtosis value of FA and ADC is helpful for determining the prognosis of patients after RFL.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1993-1999
Number of pages7
JournalJournal of Neurosurgery
Volume132
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - 06 2020
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 AANS.

Keywords

  • Diffusion tensor image
  • Facial pain
  • Neurovascular compression syndrome
  • Trigeminal neuralgia

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