Brain Reorganization in Patients with Brachial Plexus Injury : A Longitudinal Functional MRI Study

The aim of this study is to assess plastic changes of the sensorimotor cortex (SMC) in patients with traumatic brachial plexus injury (BPI) using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Twenty patients with traumatic BPI underwent fMRI using blood oxygen level-dependent technique with echo-pla...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:TheScientificWorld 2012-01, Vol.2012 (2012), p.1-11
Main Authors: Yoshikawa, Takeharu, Hayashi, Naoto, Tajiri, Yasuhito, Satake, Yoshirou, Ohtomo, Kuni
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Brachial plexus
Brachial Plexus - injuries
Brain
Brain mapping
Brain Mapping - methods
Elbow
Elbow (anatomy)
Elbow - physiology
Female
Functional magnetic resonance imaging
Health aspects
Humans
Injuries
Longitudinal Studies
Magnetic resonance imaging
Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods
Male
Medical imaging
Methods
Neuroimaging
Neuronal Plasticity - physiology
Paralysis - rehabilitation
Patients
Plasticity
Somatosensory cortex
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The aim of this study is to assess plastic changes of the sensorimotor cortex (SMC) in patients with traumatic brachial plexus injury (BPI) using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Twenty patients with traumatic BPI underwent fMRI using blood oxygen level-dependent technique with echo-planar imaging before the operation. Sixteen patients underwent their second fMRI at approximately one year after injury. The subjects performed two tasks: a flexion-extension task of the affected elbow and a task of the unaffected elbow. After activation, maps were generated, the number of significantly activated voxels in SMC contralateral to the elbow movement in the affected elbow task study (Naf) and that in the unaffected task study (Nunaf) were counted. An asymmetry index (AI) was calculated, where AI=(Naf−Nunaf)/(Naf+Nunaf). Ten healthy volunteers were also included in this fMRI study. The AI of the first fMRI of the patients with BPI was significantly lower than that of the healthy subjects (P=0.035). The AI of the second fMRI significantly decreased compared with that of the first fMRI (P=0.045). Brain reorganization associates with peripheral nervous changes after BPI and after operation for functional reconstruction.
ISSN:2356-6140
1537-744X
1537-744X
DOI:10.1100/2012/501751