TY - JOUR T1 - Alteration of cerebral glucose metabolism in rat models of chronic neuropathic pain JF - Journal of Nuclear Medicine JO - J Nucl Med SP - 1750 LP - 1750 VL - 51 IS - supplement 2 AU - Hyung Jun Im AU - Chang Eop Kim AU - Yu Kyeong Kim AU - Sang Jeong Kim AU - Sang Eun Kim AU - Dong Soo Lee Y1 - 2010/05/01 UR - http://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/51/supplement_2/1750.abstract N2 - 1750 Objectives The involvement of central nervous system in complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) has been suggested. In this study, we investigated the changes in regional cerebral glucose metabolism in the experimental animals with chronic neuropathic pain induced by spinal nerve ligation (SNL) using small animal PET and F-18 FDG. Methods Chronic neuropathic pain was induced by L5 right spinal nerve ligation in six rats, and cerebral glucose metabolism was examined before and 12 days after the operation using animal PET with 18F-FDG. Changes of regional cerebral metabolism were tested with voxel based manner using statistical parametric mapping 2 (SPM2). Results Brush evoked Mechanical allodynia was maximally expressed on 4-7 days after SNL, and mean reduction of withdrawal threshold was 88.3±8.5%. In rats with SNL, regional cerebral glucose metabolism was significantly decreased in the both thalami, left primary somatosensory cortex and right cerebellum (P <0.005, uncorrected) after surgery. While, the metabolism was increased in the right rostral ventromedial medulla, left dorsolateral pontomesencephalic tegmentum, right hippocampus, bilateral inferior colliculus and left caudate putamen (p <0.005, uncorrected). Moreover, increment of glucose metabolism in inferior colliculus was inversely correlated with the maximum reduction of withdrawal of threshold. Conclusions Our neuropathic pain rat model showed significant alteration of glucose metabolism exclusively in pain sensory, and modulating circuitry of brain. So we suggest that SNL rat model and small animal FDG PET imaging can be a useful method for investigating the brain processing of neuropathic pain ER -