The following is a summary of “Functional Connectivity and Structural Signatures of the Visual Cortical System in Fibromyalgia: A Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study,” published in the August 2023 issue of Rheumatology by Nhu et al.
Researchers performed a retrospective study on patients with fibromyalgia (FM), revealing abnormal functional connectivity (FC) and structural changes in the visual cortical system, significantly contributing to pain processing. They enrolled 30 pain-free subjects and 26 FM patients. They evaluated clinical characteristics using standardized scales and conducted structural and resting-state functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Seed-based FC analyses, voxel-based morphometry, and surface-based morphometry were performed. Compared FC and cortical structure of visual system between groups. Analyzed the correlation between functional and structural changes in the optical cortical system with clinical presentation in the FM group.
The results revealed FM patients displayed increased FC’s within visual networks, with FC between the optical medial network and the right lingual gyrus (LG) positively correlating with the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ) score. FM group showed reduced FCs from a visual occipital network (VON) to several regions. FCs from VON to bilateral frontal orbital cortices negatively correlated with FIQ and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index scores. In FM, cortical thickness tended to increase in the lateral occipital cortex, LG, and peri calcarine.
They concluded that mechanism-based therapies for FM patients may address visual cortical system changes, potentially supporting diagnostic methods and clinical presentation.
Source: jrheum.org/content/50/8/1063
