Journal of pain research
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Journal of pain research · Jan 2018
Quantitative sensory testing is feasible and is well-tolerated in patients with sickle cell disease following a vaso-occlusive episode.
Sickle cell disease (SCD) is an inherited blood disorder characterized by abnormally shaped sickle cells. The hallmark of this disease is intermittent, painful vaso-occlusive episodes (VOE), but a subset of individuals with SCD experience chronic pain. The mechanism of transition to chronic pain is not well understood in SCD, but there is evidence of altered pain processing in individuals with SCD. The impact of VOE on pain sensitivity is not established. The objective of this study was to determine the feasibility and tolerability of quantitative sensory testing (QST) in SCD following a VOE to better understand the contribution of VOE to the development of chronic pain. ⋯ QST is feasible and is well-tolerated following a VOE in patients with SCD. Large prospective studies are needed to determine the impact of VOE on experimental pain sensitivity and must take into account all factors contributing to pain sensitivity.
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Journal of pain research · Jan 2018
Safety and efficacy of subcutaneous tanezumab in patients with knee or hip osteoarthritis.
The objective of this study was to investigate the safety and efficacy of subcutaneous (SC) and intravenous (IV) tanezumab administration in osteoarthritis (OA) patients. ⋯ Preliminary results show similar efficacy and safety for both SC and IV administration of tanezumab based on the direct comparisons reported here and indirect comparisons with published results, confirming pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic modeling predictions.
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Journal of pain research · Jan 2018
The link between idiopathic intracranial hypertension, fibromyalgia, and chronic fatigue syndrome: exploration of a shared pathophysiology.
Idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IICH) is a condition characterized by raised intracranial pressure (ICP), and its diagnosis is established when the opening pressure measured during a lumbar puncture is elevated >20 cm H2O in nonobese patients or >25 cm H2O in obese patients. Papilledema is caused by forced filling of the optic nerve sheath with cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Other common but underappreciated symptoms of IICH are neck pain, back pain, and radicular pain in the arms and legs resulting from associated increased spinal pressure and forced filling of the spinal nerves with CSF. Widespread pain and also several other characteristics of IICH share notable similarities with characteristics of fibromyalgia (FM) and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), two overlapping chronic pain conditions. The aim of this review was to compare literature data regarding the characteristics of IICH, FM, and CFS and to link the shared data to an apparent underlying physiopathology, that is, increased ICP. ⋯ IICH, FM, and CFS share a large variety of symptoms that might all be explained by the same pathophysiology of increased cerebrospinal pressure.
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Journal of pain research · Jan 2018
Clinimetric properties of the Nepali version of the Pain Catastrophizing Scale in individuals with chronic pain.
Pain catastrophizing is an exaggerated negative cognitive response related to pain. It is commonly assessed using the Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS). Translation and validation of the scale in a new language would facilitate cross-cultural comparisons of the role that pain catastrophizing plays in patient function. ⋯ The PCS-NP is a valid and reliable instrument to assess pain catastrophizing in Nepalese individuals with chronic pain.
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Journal of pain research · Jan 2018
Mast cell deficiency attenuates acupuncture analgesia for mechanical pain using c-kit gene mutant rats.
Acupuncture therapy plays a pivotal role in pain relief, and increasing evidence demonstrates that mast cells (MCs) may mediate acupuncture analgesia. The present study aims to investigate the role of MCs in acupuncture analgesia using c-kit gene mutant-induced MC-deficient rats. ⋯ MCs influence the basic mechanical but not thermal pain threshold. MCs participate in acupuncture analgesia in mechanical but not in thermal nociception, in that MC deficiency may attenuate the mechanical analgesia evoked by high-intensity stimuli and eliminate analgesia provoked by low-intensity stimuli.