Yamada Kazumichi
   Department   Kumamoto Health Science University  Division of Speech-Language-HearingTherapy, Faculty of Health Science
   Kumamoto Health Science University Graduate School  Division of Health Sciences, Graduate School of Health Sciences
   Position   Professor
Research Period 2009/04~2012/03
Research Topic Visualization of structural change in patients with thalamic pain
Research Type KAKENHI Research
KAKENHI Grant No. 21591849
Responsibility Representative Researcher
Details Thalamic pain is the most intense among intractable pain syndromes. By using an apparatus producing pain-less electrical stimuli, we established a method of quantitative analysis of the degree of pain that does not rely on subjective criteria. After surgical intervention (deep brain stimulation for posterior limb of the internal capsule), pain degree (PD) is parallel to traditional subjective pain scale (visual analog scale; VAS) in shortly (within 6 months), but they tended to dissociate later. VAS was modified to worse, whereas PD maintained to improve up to 36 months. Currently, we are accumulating image data for clarifying fine structural changes in brain underlying thalamic pain by using voxel-based morphometry (VBM).