Metabolite concentration ratios in thalami of patients with migraine and trigeminal neuralgia measured with 1H-MRS

Objective: To investigate the metabolite concentration ratios including N-acetylaspartate (NAA), choline-containing compounds (Cho) and creatine plus phosphocreatine (Cr) in thalami of patients with migraine without aura, patients with trigeminal neuralgia and healthy comparison subjects using multi-voxel proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (H-1-MRS). Methods: H-1-MRS was performed with a 3.0 T MR system on the thalamus bilaterally in 20 patients with migraine without aura, 16 patients with trigeminal neuralgia and 14 healthy control subjects. Results: In the patients with trigeminal neuralgia, metabolite concentration ratios except for Cho/Cr in thalami were different from those of healthy subjects (p > 0.05). In migraine group, only NAA/Cho is low in the left thalamus (p > 0.05). Comparing the metabolite concentration ratios of affected and contralateral sides in migraine and trigeminal neuralgia groups, only NAA/Cr showed a significant difference (p > 0.05). Conclusion: It was proved that migraine and trigeminal neuralgia seemed to be associated with an abnormal balance of the neural activity in the thalamus using H-1-MRS. There was some significant difference between metabolite concentration ratios in two diseases. H-1-MRS may serve as a useful non-invasive tool for evaluating thalamic neural activity and therapy effect in clinical performance of patients with migraine without aura.