Articles: chronic.
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Approximately 20% of patients suffering from stroke with pure or predominant sensory symptoms (referred to as sensory stroke patients) develop central poststroke pain (CPSP). It is largely unknown what distinguishes these patients from those who remain pain free. Using quantitative sensory testing (QST), we analyzed the somatosensory profiles of 50 patients with chronic sensory stroke, of which 25 suffered from CPSP. ⋯ In summary, our analysis reveals that CPSP is associated with impaired temperature perception and positive sensory signs, but differences between patients with CPSP and NPSS are subtle. Both patients with CPSP and NPSS show considerable QST changes on the ipsilesional body side. These results are in part paralleled by recent findings of bilaterally spread cortical atrophy in CPSP and might reflect chronic maladaptive cortical plasticity, particularly in patients with CPSP.
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Background. Through real-time behavioral observation systems, pain behaviors are commonly used by clinicians to estimate pain intensity in patients with low back pain. However, little is known about how clinicians rely on pain-related behaviors to make their judgment. ⋯ Discussion. The use of additive rule of integration does not appear to be systematic when assessing others' pain. When assessing pain intensity, communicative and protective pain behaviors may have different relevance.
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There are conflicting data regarding the magnitude and determinants of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) risk in farmers. In a cross-sectional study of 917 nonfarming working controls and 3787 farmers aged 40-75 years, we assessed respiratory symptoms, tobacco exposure, job history (without direct exposure measurement) and lung function. COPD was defined by the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) criterion (post-bronchodilator forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1)/forced vital capacity (FVC) <0.70) and by the Quanjer reference equation (post-bronchodilator FEV1/FVC
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Recent studies reported the translocator protein (TSPO) to play critical roles in several kinds of neurological diseases including the inflammatory and neuropathic pain. However, the precise mechanism remains unclear. This study was undertaken to explore the distribution and possible mechanism of spinal TSPO against chronic neuropathic pain (CNP) in a rat model of L5 spinal nerve ligation (SNL). ⋯ Ro5-4864 also attenuated the spinal CXCR2 and p-ERK expressions. These results suggested that early upregulation of TSPO could elicit potent analgesic effects against CNP, which might be partly attributed to the inhibition of CXCL1-CXCR2-dependent astrocyte-to-neuron signaling and central sensitization. TSPO signaling pathway may present a novel strategy for the treatment of CNP.