A systematic review and meta-analysis of voxel-based morphometric studies of fibromyalgia

Ming Xin; Yuzhu Qu; Xingfu Peng; Deliang Zhu; Shirui Cheng

doi:10.3389/fnins.2023.1164145

A systematic review and meta-analysis of voxel-based morphometric studies of fibromyalgia

Front Neurosci. 2023 May 9:17:1164145. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2023.1164145. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Ming Xin^#¹, Yuzhu Qu^#^{2

3}, Xingfu Peng¹, Deliang Zhu¹, Shirui Cheng^{2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Geriatric Diseases Institute of Chengdu, Department of Rehabilitation, Chengdu Fifth People's Hospital (The Second Clinical Medical College, Affiliated Fifth People's Hospital of Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine), Chengdu, China.
² Acupuncture and Tuina School, Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, China.
³ Acupuncture and Brain Research Center, Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Objective: Although neuroimaging investigations have revealed significant changes in brain structure in fibromyalgia (FM) patients, these findings are inconsistent. The current study conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of voxel-based morphometric studies in order to comprehend those alterations in brain structure in FM patients.

Methods: Voxel-based morphometric (VBM) studies published up to January 17, 2023 were searched in the Web of Science, PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library (CENTRAL), China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Chongqing VIP, Wanfang Database. Two independent researchers carried out study screening, quality assessment, clinical data and neuroimaging data extraction. The whole-brain voxel-based gray matter (GM) data of FM patients were collected from eligible studies, and meta-analyzed using anisotropic effect size-signed differential mapping (AES-SDM).

Results: Twelve researches were included in this study, including 289 FM patients (mean age: 47.36 years) and 272 HS (mean age: 47.34 years). According to the meta-analysis, FM patients had increased GM in the right postcentral gyrus and left angular gyrus, and decreased GM in the right cingulate gyrus, right paracingulate gyrus, left cerebellum, and left gyrus rectus.

Conclusion: Our study suggests that fibromyalgia patients have altered gray matter in several brain regions that are involved in affective, cognitive functions, and in motor adaptations to pain processing.

Keywords: fibromyalgia; meta-analysis; neuroimaging; signed differential mapping; voxel-based morphometry.

Publication types

Systematic Review

Grants and funding

This study is financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 82205288), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2021MD703796), Sichuan Science and Technology Program (No. 2022NSFSC0856), and Medical Technology Project of Health Commission of Sichuan Province (No. 21PJ110). The funders did not play any role in the study design, data collection and analysis, preparation of the manuscript, or decision to publish.