The changes of brain pain functional areas in patients with overlap syndrome of functional dyspepsia and irritable bowel syndrome / 中华消化杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore the alteration of brain pain functional areas in patients with functional dyspepsia (FD) irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) overlap by rectal balloon volume stimulation and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and the differences with IBS alone patients and healthy individuals were compared.Methods A total of 11 IBS alone patients,16 IBS overlapped with FD patients (IBS-FD) and 10 healthy controls were recruited.Sensory thresholds and visual analogue scale (VAS) were recorded during the rectal balloon air injection process. The changes of brain activated areas were analyzed by functional MRI (fMRI) when the rectum was stimulated at the volume of 50,100 and 150 ml.The data were analyzed by least significant difference (LSD) test.Results Under rectal volumetric stimulation,the sensory thresholds of IBS-FD group and IBS alone group were (53.14 ± 16.05) ml and (59.20 ± 20.55) ml and the difference was not statistically significant (LSD test,P＞0.05).There was no significant difference in VAS score between IBS alone group and IBS-FD group (LSD test,P＞0.05).Rectal stimulated under different volume,the results of fMRI indicated the activation of anterior cingulated cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex,postporietal cortex,thalamus and insular cortex in both IBS alone group and IBS-FD group.And there was no significant difference in activated areas and intensity between IBS alone group and IBS-FD group (LSD test,P＞0.05).Conclusions There was no significant difference in activations of brain areas between IBS alone and IBS-FD patients under rectal volumetric stimulation. Under rectal volumetric stimulation,although symptoms overlapped,there was no evidence of the overlap of braingut axis and visceral hypersensitivity between IBS alone and IBS-FD.