Is the volume of the caudate nuclei associated with area of secondary hyperalgesia? – Protocol for a 3-Tesla MRI study of healthy volunteers

Background: Experience and development of pain may be influenced by a number of physiological, psychological, and psychosocial factors. In a previous study we found differences in neuronal activation to noxious stimulation, and microstructural neuroanatomical differences, when comparing healthy volunteers with differences in size of the area of secondary hyperalgesia following a standardized burn injury. Objective: We aim to investigate the degree of association between the volume of pain-relevant structures in the brain and the size of the area of secondary hyperalgesia following brief thermal sensitization. Methods: The study consists of one experimental day, in which whole-brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans will be conducted including T1-weighed three-dimensional anatomy scan, diffusion tensor imaging, and resting state functional MRI. Before the experimental day, all included participants will undergo experimental pain testing in a parallel study (Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT02527395). Results from this experimental pain testing, as well as the size of the area of secondary hyperalgesia from the included participants, will be extracted from this parallel study. Results: The association between the volume of pain-relevant structures in the brain and the area of secondary hyperalgesia will be investigated by linear regression of the estimated best linear unbiased predictors on the individual volumes of the pain relevant brain structures. Conclusions: We plan to investigate the association between experimental pain testing parameters and the volume, connectivity, and resting state activity of pain-relevant structures in the brain. These results may improve our knowledge of the mechanisms responsible for the development of acute and chronic pain. Clinical Trial: Danish Research Ethics Committee (identifier: H-15010473). Danish Data Protection Agency (identifier: RH-2015-149). Clinicaltrials.gov NCT02567318; http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02567318 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6i4OtP0Oi) [JMIR Res Protoc 2016;5(2):e117]