Central pain processing in "drug-naive" pain-free patients with Parkinson's disease.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Despite its clinical relevance, the pathophysiology of pain in Parkinson's disease (PD) is still largely unknown, and both central and peripheral mechanisms have been invoked. OBJECTIVES:To investigate whether central pain processing is altered in "drug-naive" pain-free PD (dnPD) patients. METHODS:Using event-related functional MRI (fMRI), functional response to forearm heat stimulation (FHS) at two different intensities (41°C and 53°C) was investigated in 20 pain-free dnPD patients, compared with 18 healthy controls (HCs). Secondary analyses were performed to evaluate associations between BOLD signal changes and PD clinical features and behavioral responses. RESULTS:During low-innocuous FHS (41°C), no activation differences were found between dnPD patients and HCs. During high-

SUBMITTER: Tessitore A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6866276 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature