Yuko Kawai1, Masahiro Umeda1,
Yasuharu Watanabe1, Toshihiro Higuchi2, Shoji Naruse3,
Chuzo Tanaka2
1Medical Informatics, Meiji University
of Integrative Medicine, Kyoto, Japan; 2Neurosurgery, Meiji
University of Integrative Medicine, Kyoto, Japan; 3Radiology,
Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan
IntroductionzNerve injury occasionally
induces neuropathic pain, which is a type of chronic pain. The cardinal
symptom of neuropathic pain is spontaneous or touch-evoked pain. The purpose
of this study is to detect brain activation during foot stimulation by using
Activity-induced manganese-enhanced (AIM) MRI in a segmental spinal nerve
ligation (SNL) model. Methods
The right L5L6 spinal nerves were ligated with 50 silk sutures. AIM MRI
were acquired using a 4.7-T MRI system.
ResultsPain-induced brain activation was successfully visualized using
AIM MRI. It suggested that the AIM MRI is useful for the depiction of the
conducting pathway of pain.