A new imaging technique has been used to document brain activity in patients suffering from the spinal injury seen in lower back pain.
Research from Brigham and Women's Hospital used arterial spin labelling to view the areas of the brain which were activated when patients with the spinal injury experienced a worsening of their usual chronic pain.
There was seen to be increased activity in the brains of patients as their symptoms worsened, which was not present during an equal level of pain caused by intense heat or in healthy patients, reported the paper which was published in journal Anesthesiology.
Lead author Ajay Wasan commented: "We are hopeful that this could lead to an understanding of an individual patient's neurocircuitry and that knowledge could lead to therapies that would be tailored to the individual."
In other news, research published in the Journal of Neuroscience found that when chronic lower back pain is reversed, so is the brain injury caused by the condition.
Serious Law, award winning brain injury law firm
Posted by Matthew Heap
