An fMRI Marker for Peripheral Nerve Regeneration

作者:Rath Jakob; Klinger Nicolaus; Geissler Alexander; Hoellinger Ilse; Gruber Susanne; Wurnig Moritz; Hausner Thomas; Auff Eduard; Schmidhammer Robert; Beisteiner Roland*
来源:Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair, 2011, 25(6): 577-579.
DOI:10.1177/1545968310397552

摘要

Final outcome after surgical repair of peripheral nerve transections varies. Here, we present the first longitudinal functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) obserof cortical somatosensory reorganization patterns after surgery. A 43-year-old man presented with isolated complete transecof the right median nerve and underwent immediate epineural end-to-end coaptation. Applying standardized vibrotactile median nerve stimulation, 3 T brain activation maps were evaluated at 1, 7, 15 weeks and 1 year after surgery. Initially, the affected hemisphere showed no primary activation but increased frontoparietal activity. After 1 year, primary activation had recovered, and frontoparietal activity was decreased relative to the nonaffected hemisphere. Based on these longitudinal fMRI patterns, we propose a new marker for restoration of somatosensory function, which may not be provided by electrophysiological methods.

  • 出版日期2011-8