Brain Circuitry Changes in Central Poststroke Pain: a Clinical and Neuroimaging Study

Central poststroke pain (CPP) is estimated to affect up to 10% of stroke patients and is one of the most difficult-to-treat conditions with a detrimental effect on patient's quality of life. So far, no drug has proven efficient to alleviate CPP and neuromodulation approaches including DBS and motor-cortex stimulation have yielded mixed results with only a few patients experiencing long-term pain relief. To date, little is known about the pathophysiology of CPP. There is at present little evidence for a clear association between the specific location of lesions, clinical manifestation and phenomenology of pain as well as treatment response of CPP patients. Furthermore, the time delay between stroke occurrence and CPP occurrence is highly variable and the fact, that it is not immediate in the great majority of patients suggests that other factors contribute to the development of CPP. These factors have not been identified yet.

The objective of this research project is to correlate clinical aspects of CPP (pain phenomenology) with magnetic resonance image (MRI)-based findings, especially metabolic changes and functional reorganization processes captured by functional MRI and MR spectroscopy. A better understanding of the underlying pathophysiological mechanism of CPP and its involved neuronal networks are mandatory for any future therapeutic approach to treat this difficult condition. The discovery of a potential image-based biomarker could serve to help identify patients early who are at risk of developing CPP. Furthermore, the findings may help identify prognosticators of different forms of CPP treatments (e.g. biofeed-back, neuromodulation approaches, medication) in the future.