Developments in non-invasive functional brain imaging techniques in the last few decades such as Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT), Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) have significantly added to the scientific knowledge about the mechanism of brain processing of pain signals and how it is modulated by different analgesic interventions ( 1, 2).įunctional brain imaging studies vary in design and investigated target. Pain is one of the most challenging clinical entities in medicine. Together with its utility in extreme situations, SPECTS is also helpful in investigating brain activation under typical pain conditions such as experimental controlled pain and chronic pain syndromes. Not only does SPECT allow for imaging of brain activity under extreme pain conditions in clinical settings, but it also allows for imaging of brain activity modulation in response to analgesic maneuvers whether pharmacologic or non-traditional such as using virtual reality analgesia.
Functional brain imaging during severe burn wound care is an example that has been extensively studied using this technique. This unique feature allows for designing functional brain imaging studies that do not require the patient to be inside the scanner at the time of brain activation. In other words, it freezes a snapshot of brain perfusion at the time of injection that is kept and can be imaged later. This allows for a practical imaging window of 1 or 2 h after injection. It reaches peak activity in the brain 1 min after injection and is then slowly cleared from the brain following a biexponential mode. It crosses the blood brain barrier and has high first pass extraction by the neurons proportional to regional brain perfusion at the time of injection. ECD is a lipophilic compound with unique pharmacodynamics. The most commonly used radiopharmaceutical in Single Photon Emission Tomography (SPECT) functional brain imaging is Technetium 99 m-labeled Ethyl Cysteinate Dimer (ECD). This limitation makes functional neuroimaging in many clinical scenarios extremely difficult or impossible. One major limitation of most functional neuroimaging modalities is that only neural activation taking place inside the scanner can be imaged. 5The University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, United Statesįunctional neuroimaging modalities vary in spatial and temporal resolution.4University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States.3EECS - School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Media Technology & Interaction Design, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden.2School of Computing, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu Campus, Joensuu, Finland.1Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, Roanoke, VA, United States.Mohammed Bermo 1 *, Mohammed Saqr 2,3, Hunter Hoffman 4, David Patterson 4, Sam Sharar 4, Satoshi Minoshima 5 and David H.
0 kommentar(er)
