High prevalence of incidental brain findings in primary dysmenorrhoea. (8th December 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Li, W.C.; Tu, C.H.; Chao, H.T.; Yeh, T.C.; Chen, L.F.; Hsieh, J.C.
• Is Part Of: European journal of pain. Volume 19:Number 8(2015)
• Page Start: 1071
• Page End: 1074
• Publication Date: 2014-12-08
• Subjects: Pain -- Periodicals; Pain -- Treatment -- Periodicals; Pain -- Physiological aspects -- Periodicals; 616.0472
• DOI: 10.1002/ejp.639
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1090-3801

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main"> <title>Abstract</title> <sec id="ejp639-sec-0001" sec-type="section"> <title>Background</title> <p>Primary dysmenorrhoea (PDM) is inexorably common. PDM women suffer from cramping pain in the lower abdomen that starts with menstruation and lasts for 24–72 h. Up to 90% of adolescent girls and more than 50% of menstruating women worldwide report suffering from it. Ten to 20% of PDM women describe their suffering as severe and distressing. However, nothing is known regarding the association of PDM with possible brain anomalies or abnormalities.</p> </sec> <sec id="ejp639-sec-0002" sec-type="section"> <title>Methods</title> <p>High‐resolution T1‐weighted anatomical brain magnetic resonance images (MRI) were acquired for each subject and inspected for incidental findings (normal variants and abnormalities) as a routine procedure in our PDM‐related multimodal neuroimaging studies. Altogether, 330 right‐handed young women [otherwise healthy PDMs = 163; non‐PDM healthy controls (HCs) = 167] were enrolled during the period of 2006–2014. Binomial proportion test was performed for between‐group comparisons.</p> </sec> <sec id="ejp639-sec-0003" sec-type="section"> <title>Results</title> <p>PDMs demonstrated significantly higher prevalence of overall incidental brain MRI findings (PDMs: <italic>n</italic> = 18, 11.0%; HCs: <italic>n</italic> = 6, 3.6%; <italic>p</italic> = 0.005) that should be ascribed to a preponderance of normal variants (PDMs: <italic>n</italic> = 16, 9.8%; HCs: <italic>n</italic> = 3, 1.8%; <italic>p</italic> = 0.001), especially cavum septum pellucidum. No significant between‐group difference of abnormal findings was found (PDMs: <italic>n</italic> = 2, 1.2%; HCs: <italic>n</italic> = 3, 1.8%; <italic>p</italic> = 0.336).</p> </sec> <sec id="ejp639-sec-0004" sec-type="section"> <title>Conclusions</title> <p>We report here that otherwise healthy PDMs are associated with high prevalence of normal variants but not brain abnormalities. Our observations invite further epidemiological and neuroscientific studies.</p> </sec> </abstract>