Pain medicine : the official journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine
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No study has evaluated the relationship between contrast dispersion patterns and outcomes after fluoroscopically guided cervical transforaminal epidural steroid injection (CTFESI). ⋯ Improvements in pain and function 1 month after treatment with CTFESI did not differ significantly based on the contrast dispersion pattern. Future study is needed to confirm or refute these findings in other procedural settings, in broader patient populations, and with longer-term outcome assessment.
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Multisite chronic pain (MSCP) is associated with increased chronic pain impact, but methods for identifying MSCP for epidemiological research have not been evaluated. ⋯ Identification of MSCP with electronic health care data was insufficiently accurate to be used as a surrogate or screener for MSCP identified by self-report, but both methods identified persons with heightened chronic pain impact.
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Validity and Reliability of the Computer-Administered Routine Opioid Outcome Monitoring (ROOM) Tool.
The Routine Opioid Outcome Monitoring (ROOM) tool measures outcomes with opioids using an established framework which includes domains such as pain, mood, opioid use disorder, alcohol use, and constipation. This study aims to validate and establish the test-retest reliability of the computer-administered ROOM tool. ⋯ The computer-administered ROOM tool is a valid approach for brief monitoring of outcomes with prescribed opioids in primary care settings and appears to be acceptable to people who are using prescribed opioids for chronic pain.
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This study used high-speed cooling of the skin and exact control of stimulus duration to measure the cold detection threshold in healthy participants. The objective was to compare the method of limits, in which the temperature is slowly and gradually increased/decreased until the subject perceives the stimulation, and the method of levels, in which the subject must detect brief thermal stimulations close to the threshold of perception. ⋯ These results suggest that the method of levels is more accurate than the method of limits for measuring cold detection threshold. The improvement of cold detection threshold measurement may provide new perspectives to more precisely assess the function of A-delta fibers and the spino-thalamic pathway.