The role of biomarkers in drug-resistant trigeminal neuralgia: a prospective study in patients submitted to surgical treatment

Psychological assessment in patients affected by trigeminal neuralgia. A systematic review

The aim of the present study was to conduct a systematic review regarding the presence and type of psychological comorbidities in patients with trigeminal neuralgia and to determine the potential impact of surgical treatments on these conditions. We reviewed the literature following PRISMA guidelines to identify and critically examine relevant studies. The review question was formulated according to the PICO framework as follows: "For patients affected by trigeminal neuralgia (P) undergoing neuropsychological assessments (I) and potentially undergoing reassessment after surgical treatment (C), is there a correlation between psychological issues and trigeminal neuralgia, and does the treatment of trigeminal neuralgia improve psychological well-being (O)?". The literature search yielded a total of 316 results. After removing duplicates (n = 73), 243 papers were screened. Following title and abstract screening, 222 records were excluded. Ultimately, 11 studies were deemed relevant to the research purpose. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first systematic review highlighting the significant psychological burden of trigeminal neuralgia, including higher risks of sleep, depressive, and anxiety disorders. Surgical treatments effectively alleviate both pain and psychological symptoms, and multidisciplinary approaches combining psychological support and neuro-rehabilitation with medical or surgical care yield better outcomes. Standardizing psychological assessment and treatment methodologies is crucial for optimizing trigeminal neuralgia management. Clinical trial number: Not applicable.

Biomarkers in orofacial pain conditions: A narrative review

Orofacial pain conditions, including temporomandibular disorder, migraine, dental pain, and trigeminal neuralgia, are complex, multifactorial disorders with significant impacts on patients' quality of life. As understanding of the pathophysiology of these conditions has deepened, the role of molecular and genetic biomarkers in diagnosing, monitoring, and potentially treating orofacial pain has garnered increasing interest. This scoping review provides a comprehensive overview of the current state of research on biomarkers associated with orofacial pain conditions. By analyzing existing literature, we identify key biomarkers linked to inflammation, neural activity, and tissue degradation that are common across multiple conditions, as well as those specific to particular disorders. Our findings underscore the potential of these biomarkers to guide the development of personalized therapeutic strategies. However, the review also highlights the challenges faced by current biomarker research, including heterogeneity in study designs, small sample sizes, and a lack of longitudinal data. Addressing these challenges is critical for translating biomarker research into clinical practice and improving outcomes for patients with orofacial pain.

Circulating Brain Injury Biomarkers for Predicting Outcomes Following Elective Neurosurgery: A Scoping Review

OBJECTIVE

There is a need for refined methods to detect and quantify brain injuries that may be undetectable by magnetic resonance imaging and neurologic examination. This review evaluates the potential efficacy of circulating brain injury biomarkers for predicting outcomes following elective neurosurgical procedures.

METHODS

A comprehensive search was conducted using the Cochrane, PubMed, and Scopus databases.

RESULTS

Analysis of 23 relevant studies revealed that specific biomarkers, including glial fibrillary acidic protein, neurofilament light chain, neuron-specific enolase, S100B, and tau, are significantly associated with the extent of brain injury and could potentially predict postsurgical outcomes. The evaluated studies described intracranial tumor surgeries and miscellaneous neurosurgical interventions and demonstrated the complex relationship between biomarker levels and patient outcomes.

CONCLUSIONS

Circulating brain injury biomarkers show promise for providing objective insights into the extent of perioperative brain injury and improving prognostication of postsurgical outcomes. However, the heterogeneity in study designs and outcomes along with the lack of standardized biomarker thresholds underscore the need for further research.

Altered trends of local brain function in classical trigeminal neuralgia patients after a single trigger pain

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the altered trends of regional homogeneity (ReHo) based on time and frequency, and clarify the time-frequency characteristics of ReHo in 48 classical trigeminal neuralgia (CTN) patients after a single pain stimulate.

METHODS

All patients underwent three times resting-state functional MRI (before stimulation (baseline), after stimulation within 5 s (triggering-5 s), and in the 30th min of stimulation (triggering-30 min)). The spontaneous brain activity was investigated by static ReHo (sReHo) in five different frequency bands and dynamic ReHo (dReHo) methods.

RESULTS

In the five frequency bands, the number of brain regions which the sReHo value changed in classical frequency band were most, followed by slow 4 frequency band. The left superior occipital gyrus was only found in slow 2 frequency band and the left superior parietal gyrus was only found in slow 3 frequency band. The dReHo values were changed in midbrain, left thalamus, right putamen, and anterior cingulate cortex, which were all different from the brain regions that the sReHo value altered. There were four altered trends of the sReHo and dReHo, which dominated by decreased at triggering-5 s and increased at triggering-30 min.

CONCLUSIONS

The duration of brain function changed was more than 30 min after a single pain stimulate, although the pain of CTN was transient. The localized functional homogeneity has time-frequency characteristic in CTN patients after a single pain stimulate, and the changed brain regions of the sReHo in five frequency bands and dReHo complemented to each other. Which provided a certain theoretical basis for exploring the pathophysiology of CTN.

The role of artificial intelligence in the management of trigeminal neuralgia

Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) is the most frequent facial pain. It is difficult to treat pharmacologically and a significant amount of patients can become drug-resistant requiring surgical intervention. From an etiologically point of view TN can be distinguished in a classic form, usually due to a neurovascular conflict, a secondary form (for example related to multiple sclerosis or a cerebello-pontine angle tumor) and an idiopathic form in which no anatomical cause is identifiable. Despite numerous efforts to treat TN, many patients experience recurrence after multiple operations. This fact reflects our incomplete understanding of TN pathogenesis. Artificial intelligence (AI) uses computer technology to develop systems for extension of human intelligence. In the last few years, it has been a widespread of AI in different areas of medicine to implement diagnostic accuracy, treatment selection and even drug production. The aim of this mini-review is to provide an up to date of the state-of-art of AI applications in TN diagnosis and management.

CSF neuron-specific enolase as a biomarker of neurovascular conflict severity in drug-resistant trigeminal neuralgia: a prospective study in patients submitted to microvascular decompression

BACKGROUND

Although neurovascular conflict (NVC) is the most widely accepted cause of trigeminal neuralgia (TN), few articles have analyzed molecular and biochemical mechanisms underlying TN. In the present study, we dosed neuron-specific enolase (NSE) on serum and CSF samples of 20 patients submitted to microvascular decompression (MVD) and correlated these findings with the type of NVC.

METHODS

Blood samples were obtained preoperatively and 48 h after MVD. CSF from trigeminal cistern was intraoperatively obtained. NSE levels were measured using the Diasorin kit (LIAISON®NSE). NVC was classified as "contact" or "trigeminal nerve distortion/indentation" or "trigeminal root atrophy" based on MRI and intraoperative findings. Clinical outcome was measured by acute pain relief (APR) and Barrow Neurological Institute (BNI) scale at last available follow-up (FU; 6.40 ± 5.38 months).

RESULTS

APR was obtained in all patients. A statistically significant BNI reduction was obtained at latest FU (p < 0.0001). Serum NSE levels significantly decreased following MVD (from 12.15 ± 3.02 ng/mL to 8.95 ± 2.83 ng/mL, p = 0.001). The mean CSF NSE value was 48.94 ng/mL, and the mean CSF/serum NSE rate was 4.18 with a strong correlation between these two variables (p = 0.0008). CSF NSE level in "trigeminal root atrophy" group was significantly higher compared to "contact" (p = 0.0045) and "distortion/indentation" (p = 0.010) groups.

CONCLUSION

NSE levels seem to be related to the etiopathology and severity of NVC. A significant reduction of serum NSE levels could be related to the resolution of the NVC and clinical TN improvement.

Outcome Comparison of Drug-Resistant Trigeminal Neuralgia Surgical Treatments-An Umbrella Review of Meta-Analyses and Systematic Reviews

Medical treatment for trigeminal neuralgia (TN) is not always a feasible option due to a lack of full response or adverse effects. Open surgery or percutaneous procedures are advocated in these cases. Several articles have compared the results among different techniques. Nevertheless, the findings of these studies are heterogeneous. Umbrella reviews are studies sitting at the peak of the evidence pyramid. With this umbrella review, we provided a systematic review of the outcomes of the surgical procedures used for TN treatment. Only systematic reviews and meta-analyses were included following the PRISMA guidelines. Ten articles were enrolled for qualitative and quantitative assessment. Level of evidence was quantified using a specific tool (AMSTAR-2). Results were heterogenous in terms of outcome and measurements. Microvascular decompression (MVD) appeared to be the most effective procedure both in the short-term (pain relief in 85-96.6% of cases) and long-term follow-up (pain relief in 64-79% of cases), although showed the highest rate of complications. The results of percutaneous techniques were similar but radiosurgery showed the highest variation in term of pain relief and a higher rate of delayed responses. The use of the AMSTAR-2 tool to quantify the evidence level scored three studies as critically low and seven studies as low-level, revealing a lack of good quality studies on this topic. Our umbrella review evidenced the need of well-designed comparative studies and the utilization of validated scales in order to provide more homogenous data for pooled-analyses and meta-analyses in the field of TN surgical treatment.

Surgical and Clinical Outcomes of Microvascular Decompression: A Comparative Study between Young and Elderly Patients

Microvascular decompression (MVD) is the only etiological technique for the treatment of trigeminal neuralgia (TN). Whilst there is a consensus MVD is likely effective regardless of age, the elderly population is thought to be more prone to have a higher rate of surgical complication, morbidity, and mortality. The main objective of our single-center, retrospective study was to analyze the surgical and clinical outcomes of MVD in TN elderly patients. From a surgical series of patients with TN who had undergone MVD from April 2018 to April 2022, 76 patients who matched the inclusion criteria were divided into two groups: twenty-five (32.9%) patients were older than 65 years and included in the elderly group, while the remaining fifty-one (61.1%) patients were below 65 years included in the non-elderly one. There were no differences between the groups in terms of acute pain relief (APR), Barrow Neurological Index (BNI) at follow-up, complications, and recurrence rate. In multivariate analysis (Cox proportional hazards regression analysis) the presence of an offending artery with nerve root distortion/indentation emerged as the only independent prognostic factor for pain-free survival (p = 0.0001). Our data endorse MVD as a safe and effective surgical procedure also for elderly patients with TN.

Shape deformations of the basal ganglia in patients with classical trigeminal neuralgia: a cross-sectional evaluation

INTRODUCTION

Despite the involvement of subcortical brain structures in the pathogenesis of classic trigeminal neuralgia (CTN), the details of morphological abnormalities of basal ganglia to this disorder are still unknown. This study aimed to investigate potential changes in terms of volume and shape of subcortical regions in patients with CTN.

METHODS

Forty-eight patients with CTN and 46 matched healthy subjects were recruited in the study. The whole-brain T1 anatomical data was acquired at a 3.0 Tesla scanner using a fast spoiled gradient recalled sequence (FSPGR). Vertex-wise analysis was applied to detect the alterations of volume and shape in each subcortical region in the patients with CTN compared to healthy controls. The relationships of morphological abnormalities in subcortical structures to the severity of orofacial pain and the affective disturbance in the patient group were examined using the multiple linear regression model.

RESULTS

No group difference was found about volumetric measurement in any of the subcortical regions. Vertex-wise analysis revealed areas of significant shape atrophy in bilateral putamen and bilateral pallidum in the patients with CTN compared to healthy controls. Besides, the patient group exhibited shape expansion in the head of the right caudate nucleus compared to healthy subjects. In addition, shape deformation in the head of the right caudate nucleus was positively associated with VAS score in CTN.

CONCLUSION

The patients with CTN display shape alterations in the specific subregions of basal ganglia, which may contribute to the pathophysiology of this refractory disorder and may be useful for translational medicine.