pain measurement indicator, trigeminal neuralgia, fractional anisotropy, magnetic resonance diffusion tensor imaging, percutaneous stereotactic radiofrequency rhizotomy, Neurology. Diseases of the nervous system, RC346-429

ObjectivesTo investigate the effect of diffusivity metrics of magnetic resonance diffusion tensor imaging (MR-DTI) in the assessment of treatment effects.MethodsMR-DTI examination for trigeminal neuralgia (TN) patients and the diffusivity metrics of the trigeminal ganglion (TG) were analyzed. Before and after the percutaneous stereotactic radiofrequency rhizotomy (PSR) operation, the treatment effect was assessed using pain scores and MR-DTI. The correlation between the diffusivity metrics of cranial nerve five (CNV) and visual analog scale (VAS) pain scores before and after treatment in TN patients was explored.ResultsIn PSR patients, the fractional anisotropy (FA) of the affected TG is a significantly lower than that of the unaffected side (p 0.05). Following PSR treatment, both of the diffusivity metrics (FA) in the lowest area of the CNV and the VAS scores of TN patients show changes. Furthermore, diffusivity metric (FA) on the lowest area of the CNV preoperative is significantly negatively correlated with the VAS scores (p