White matter integrity in patients with classic trigeminal neuralgia: a multi-node automated fiber tract quantification study

Objective To study the characteristics of point-by-point destruction of white matter tracts in patients using automated fiber tract quantification (AFQ). Methods Thirty-four classic trigeminal neuralgia (CTN) patients and 34 healthy control (HC) subjects underwent 3.0 T diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging and T1-weighted imaging. The fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) of 100 nodes of 20 fiber tracts were analyzed by AFQ, and the correlations of the FA and MD with the visual analogue scale (VAS) pain score were assessed. Results The FA values of the left thalamic radiation (middle segment), left corticospinal tract, callosum forceps minor, and right uncinate fasciculus were significantly lower in CTN patients than in the HC group. The MD of the left thalamic tract (middle segment), left corticospinal tract, right superior longitudinal fasciculus, and left superior longitudinal fasciculus (anterior segment) were significantly higher in the CTN group. Additionally, the VAS pain score in CTN patients was positively correlated with FA and negatively correlated with MD. Conclusion Specific fiber tract nodes were damaged in CTN patients, which was related to the VAS pain score. Multi-node quantitative studies of fiber tract damage are valuable for understanding the white matter tract damage pattern in CTN patients.