Articles: function.
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Noradrenaline reuptake inhibitors are known to produce analgesia through a spinal action but they also act in the brain. However, the action of noradrenaline on supraspinal pain control regions is understudied. The authors addressed the noradrenergic modulation of the dorsal reticular nucleus (DRt), a medullary pronociceptive area, in the spared nerve injury (SNI) model of neuropathic pain. ⋯ Chronic pain induces brainstem noradrenergic activation that enhances descending facilitation from the DRt. This suggests that antidepressants inhibiting noradrenaline reuptake may enhance pain facilitation from the brain, counteracting their analgesic effects at the spinal cord.
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Cystic fibrosis (CF) conductance transmembrane regulator functions as a chloride (Cl-) channel in multiple organs, including the lungs. More than 1,800 disease-associated mutations have been identified, which can be divided into six classes. ⋯ We report 6 months' prospective stability of lung function, improved BMI, reduced pulmonary exacerbations, and reduction in sweat chloride level in a patient with severe CF and the class IV R117H mutation. High-resolution CT scan also improved, thus highlighting the potential usefulness of ivacaftor in patients with severe CF due to class IV mutations.
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Persistent postsurgical pain, musculoskeletal pain, sensory disturbances, and lymphedema are major clinical problems after treatment for breast cancer. However, there is little evidence on how these sequelae affects physical function. The aim this study was to develop and validate a procedure-specific tool for assessing the impact of pain and other sequelae on physical function after breast cancer treatment. ⋯ The present scales displayed good psychometric qualities, and may be used to evaluate the impact of specific sequelae after breast cancer treatment on physical functioning, as well as to monitor and target interventions to optimize pain treatment and rehabilitation.
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Elevated aminotransferase levels indicating liver function, even in the normal range, have attracted great concern as potential novel markers of cardiovascular risk assessment. We hypothesized the possibility that liver function test variations in the normal range might be meaningfully associated to coronary artery disease (CAD). ⋯ Alanine aminotransferase and AST may not be associated with angiographically determined coronary atherosclerosis. Albumin may be more sensitive to demonstrate the burden of atherosclerosis. These results indicate that the association between the liver function tests and coronary atherosclerosis may be more complex than generally appreciated.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Sep 2015
Pulmonary Impedance and Pulmonary Doppler Trace in the Perioperative Period.
Pulmonary hypertension and associated vascular changes may frequently accompany left-sided heart disease in the adult cardiac surgical population. Perioperative assessment of right ventricular function using echocardiography is well established. In general, understanding the constraints upon which the right ventricle must work is mostly limited to invasive monitoring consisting of pulmonary artery pressures, cardiac output, and pulmonary vascular resistance. ⋯ The measurement of acceleration time, the time from onset to peak flow velocity is an indicator of constraint to ejection; shortened times have been associated with increased pulmonary vascular resistance and pressure. Understanding the changes in the pulmonary arterial system in disease and the physics of the hemodynamic alterations are essential in interpreting pulmonary artery Doppler data. Analyzing pulmonary artery Doppler flow signals may assist in the evaluation of right ventricular function in patients with pulmonary vascular disease.