Flatness of the Meckel cave may cause primary trigeminal neuralgia: a radiomics-based study

BACKGROUND: Neurovascular contact (NVC) is the main cause of primary trigeminal neuralgia (PTN); however, cases of PTN without NVC are still observed. In this study, the Meckel cave (MC) morphology in PTN were analyzed by radiomics and compared to healthy controls (HCs) to explore the cause of PTN. METHODS: We studied the 3.0T MRI data of 115 patients with PTN and 46 HCs. Bilateral MC was modeled using the 3D Slicer software, and the morphological characteristics of MC were analyzed using the radiomics method. RESULTS: The right side incidence rate in the PTN group was higher than the left side incidence. By analyzing the flatness feature of MC, we observed that the affected side of the PTN was lower than that of the unaffected side, the right MC of the PTN and HC was lower than that of the left MC, the MC of the affected side of the left and right PTN without bilateral NVC was lower than that of the unaffected side. CONCLUSIONS: By providing a method to analyze the morphology of the MC, we found that there is an asymmetry in the morphology of bilateral MC in the PTN and HC groups. It can be inferred that the flatness of the MC may be a cause of PTN.