Alterations in regional homogeneity of resting-state cerebral activity in patients with chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome

PLoS One. 2017 Sep 19;12(9):e0184896. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0184896. eCollection 2017.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the neural mechanism in Chronic prostatitis/Chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CP/CPPS) using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. The functional magnetic resonance imaging was performed on 31 male CP/CPPS-patients and 31 age and education matched male healthy controls on a 3-T magnetic resonance imaging unit. A two-sample t-test was adopted to reveal the regional homogeneity between the patients and healthy controls. The mean regional homogeneity values in the alerted brain regions of patients were correlated with the clinical measurements by using Pearson's correlation analyses. The CP/CPPS-patients had significantly decreased regional homogeneity in the bilateral anterior cingulate cortices, insular cortices and right medial prefrontal cortex, while significantly increased regional homogeneity in the brainstem and right thalamus compared with the healthy controls. In the CP/CPPS-patients, the mean regional homogeneity value in the left anterior cingulate cortex, bilateral insular cortices and brainstem were respectively correlated with the National Institutes of Health Chronic Prostatitis Symptom Index total score and pain subscale. These brain regions are important in the pain modulation process. Therefore, an impaired pain modulatory system, either by decreased descending pain inhibition or enhanced pain facilitation, may explain the pain symptoms in CP/CPPS.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Brain / diagnostic imaging
  • Brain / physiopathology*
  • Case-Control Studies
  • Chronic Disease
  • Gyrus Cinguli / diagnostic imaging
  • Gyrus Cinguli / physiopathology
  • Humans
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Pelvic Pain / diagnostic imaging
  • Pelvic Pain / metabolism
  • Pelvic Pain / pathology*
  • Prefrontal Cortex / diagnostic imaging
  • Prefrontal Cortex / physiopathology
  • Prostatitis / diagnostic imaging
  • Prostatitis / metabolism
  • Prostatitis / pathology*
  • Severity of Illness Index
  • Thalamus / diagnostic imaging
  • Thalamus / physiopathology
  • Young Adult

Grants and funding

Research by MW was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31470047, 81641168 and 81271565), Henan Province Scientific and Technological Innovation Talents Project (No. 164200510014), Henan Province Scientific and Technological Cooperation Project (No. 152106000014) and Key Project of Henan Medical Science and Technology Project (No. 201501011). Research by YB was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81601466). Research by PL was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81271644). Research by WQ was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81471811).