Chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CP/CPPS) is characterized by chronic pain in pelvic area and lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS). Previous neuroimaging studies demonstrated that chronic pain was associated with the altered brain activity. However, the pathological mechanisms associated with altered brain control of CP/CPPS are not well understood. Therefore, we sought to investigate the topological properties of white matter brain networks in patients with CP/CPPS and whether the topological configuration of frontal-parietal control network was disrupted. We collected 19 patients with CP/CPPS and 32 matched healthy controls (HCs). Diffusion tensor imaging data of all participates were used to map the white matter structural networks. Graph theoretical method was applied to investigate the alterations of topological properties of brain network in patients. Moreover, we also investigated whether the alerted brain regions might be correlated to any clinical features of patients by the method of Pearson correlation analysis. Both CP/CPPS patients and HCs exhibited a 'small-world' behaviour or economical small-world architecture of the white matter brain networks. In addition, CP/CPPS had a lower global efficiency in the right middle frontal gyrus (orbital part) and a higher global efficiency in the left middle cingulate and paracingulate gyri. CP/CPPS also showed increased local efficiency in the left middle cingulate and paracingulate gyri and paracentral lobule. Moreover, the local efficiency of the left middle cingulate gyrus was positively correlated with the scores of the influence of symptoms on the quality of life. The local efficiency of the left precuneus and right supplementary motor area were positively correlated with the total scores of NIH-CPSI and the scores of pain and discomfort symptoms, respectively. Together, we found that patients with CP/CPPS had alterations of connections within the frontal-parietal control network, which suggested that the altered connectivity involved in the executive control processing procedures might contribute to the pathogenesis of the pelvic pain and LUTS in CP/CPPS. Thus these results provided new insights into the understanding of CP/CPPS.
The European journal of neuroscience. 2020 Sep 08 [Epub ahead of print]
Xinfei Huang, Jianhuai Chen, Shaowei Liu, Qingkuo Gong, Tao Liu, Chao Lu, Zhan Qin, Hongliang Cui, Yun Chen, Yongkang Zhu
Department of Andrology, Jiangsu Province Hospital of Chinese Medicine, Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, China., Department of Radiology, Jiangsu Province Hospital of Chinese Medicine, Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, China., Department of Andrology, Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine, Zhuhai, China., Department of Urology, Nantong Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Nantong, China., Department of General Surgery, Jiangsu Province Hospital of Chinese Medicine, Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, China.