• Arpana Gupta, Davis C Woodworth, Benjamin M Ellingson, Andrea J Rapkin, Bruce Naliboff, Lisa A Kilpatrick, Jean Stains, Salome Masghati, Kirsten Tillisch, Emeran A Mayer, and Jennifer S Labus.
• G. Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience at UCLA, Los Angeles, California; Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases at UCLA, Los Angeles, California; David Geffen Sc... more hool of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, California. less
• J Pain. 2018 May 1; 19 (5): 528.e1-528.e15.

AbstractProvoked vestibulodynia (PVD) is a chronic pelvic pain disorder affecting 16% of the female population. Neuroimaging studies have highlighted central abnormalities in PVD, similar to other chronic pelvic pain disorders, including brain regions involved in sensory processing and modulation of pain. The aim of the study was to determine alterations in the subvoxel, microstructural organization within tissues in PVD compared with healthy control participants (HCs) and a disease control group (irritable bowel syndrome [IBS]). Diffusion tensor imaging magnetic resonance imaging was conducted in 87 age-matched premenopausal women (29 PVD, 29 HCs, 29 IBS). Statistical parameter mapping of fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) maps were used to identify microstructural difference in the brain specific to PVD or shared with IBS. PVD alterations in microstructural organization of the brain were predominantly observed in fibers associated with sensorimotor integration and pain processing that relay information between the thalamus, basal ganglia, sensorimotor, and insular cortex. PVD, compared with HCs, showed extensive increases in the FA of somatosensory and basal ganglia regions. In contrast, PVD and IBS subjects did not show any FA-related group differences. PVD subjects showed greater MD in the basal ganglia compared with HCs (higher MD in the internal capsule and pallidum) and IBS (higher MD in the putamen and pallidum). Increases in MD were associated with increased vaginal muscle tenderness and vulvar pain. The current findings highlight possible shared mechanisms between 2 different pelvic pain disorders, but also highlight the widespread alterations observed specifically in PVD compared with HCs.Copyright © 2018 The American Pain Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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