| Autor: |
Badel T; Department of Removable Prosthodontics, School of Dental Medicine, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia., Bašić Kes V; Department of Neurology, Clinical Hospital Centre 'Sisters of Charity', University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia., Jerolimov V; Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Zagreb, Croatia., Zadravec D; Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Clinical Hospital Centre 'Sisters of Charity', University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia., Savić-Pavičin I; Department of Dental Athropology, School of Dental Medicine, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia., Anić Milošević S; Department of Orthodontics, School of Dental Medicine, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia. |
| Abstrakt: |
The purpose of the study was to find differences in the parameters of the response to the blink reflex (BR) between patients with idiopathic trigeminal neuralgia (TN) and health volunteers. A prospective cohort study was conducted over 2 years. The TN-subgroup included 15 patients (mean age / SD 62.3 ± 10.7 years). Pain-free and healthy volunteers as a HV-subgroup (mean age / SD: 30.8 ± 8.1 years) were recruited from asymptomatic students of dental medicine. Diagnostic parameters were determined by measuring latency to the onset of the BR components from electric stimulation. The following branches of the trigeminal nerve were affected: maxillary branch only (26.7%), mandibular branch only (20%), combined: ophthalmic branch with maxillary branch (6.7%), and ophthalmic branch with mandibular branch (6.7%) respectively, combined maxillary and mandibular branch (26.7%) and affected all three branches (13.4%). The latencies of the BR, left and right side together, between subgroups were significantly higher for values R1 (homolateral early response), R2 (homolateral late response), R2c latency (contralaterally expressed response) in the TN-subgroup (p < 0.05). On the basis of the presence of R1c and R3 latencies and upon considering the abnormal findings of the BR, no statistically significant differences were found between the examined subgroups (p > 0.05). Blink-reflex parameters (R1, R2 and R2c) were significantly abnormal comparing TN-patients with healthy volunteers. The R3 component of the BR was related to noxious stimuli, likewise by innocuous stimuli. |
