University of Colorado Boulder researchers have discovered a brain signature that identifies fibromyalgia sufferers with 93 percent accuracy, a potential breakthrough for future clinical diagnosis and treatment of the highly prevalent condition.
Fibromyalgia is commonly defined as chronic widespread musculoskeletal pain accompanied by symptoms such as fatigue, anxiety and mood disorders. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that fibromyalgia affects more than five million adults annually in the U.S., with significantly higher occurrence rates in women than in men.听听 听
Historically, fibromyalgia has been difficult to diagnose and treat due to a lack of a well-categorized tissue pathology and symptoms that overlap with other common chronic illnesses.
抖阴旅行射 Boulder researchers used functional MRI scans (fMRI) to study brain activity in a group of 37 fibromyalgia patients and 35 control patients as they were exposed to a variety of non-painful visual, auditory and tactile cues as well as painful pressure.
The multisensory testing allowed the researchers to identify a series of three sub-markers, or neurological patterns, that correlated with the hypersensitivity to pain that characterizes fibromyalgia.
鈥淭he novelty of this study is that it provides potential neuroimaging-based tools that can be used with new patients to inform about the degree of certain neural pathology underlying their pain symptoms,鈥� said Marina L贸pez-Sol脿, a post-doctoral researcher in 抖阴旅行射 Boulder鈥檚 and lead author of the new study. 鈥淭he set of tools may be helpful to identify patient subtypes, which may be important for adjusting treatment selection on an individualized basis.鈥�
The findings were in the journal PAIN, published by the International Association for the Study of Pain.
鈥淭hough many pain specialists have established clinical procedures for diagnosing fibromyalgia, the clinical label does not explain what is happening neurologically and it does not reflect the full individuality of patients鈥� suffering,鈥� said Tor Wager, director of the Cognitive and Affective Control Laboratory. 鈥淭he potential for brain measures like the ones we developed here is that they can tell us something about the particular brain abnormalities that drive an individual鈥檚 suffering. That can help us both recognize fibromyalgia for what it is 鈥� a disorder of the central nervous system 鈥� and treat it more effectively.鈥�
If replicated and expanded upon in future studies, the results could eventually provide a neurological road map to brain activity that would inform diagnosis and therapeutic interventions for fibromyalgia.
鈥淭his is a helpful first step that builds off of other important previous work and is a natural step in the evolution of our understanding of fibromyalgia as a brain disorder鈥� said L贸pez-Sol脿.听
An MRI image showing the multivariate brain pattern that听predicts fibromyalgia听status on the basis of brain activation during multisensory stimulation. Image:听Cognitive and Affective Control Laboratory / University of Colorado Boulder.
