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(1) Background: Oxaliplatin is among the most neurotoxic anticancer drugs. Little data are available on the long-term prevalence and consequences of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN), even though the third largest population of cancer survivors is made up of survivors of colorectal cancer. (2) Methods: A multicenter, cross-sectional study was conducted in 16 French centers to assess the prevalence of CIPN, as well as its consequences (neuropathic pain, anxiety, depression, and quality of life) in cancer survivors during the 5 years after the end of adjuvant oxaliplatin chemotherapy. (3) Results: Out of 406 patients, the prevalence of CIPN was 31.3% (95% confidence interval: 26.8-36.0). Little improvement in CIPN was found over the 5 years, and 36.5% of patients with CIPN also had neuropathic pain. CIPN was associated with anxiety, depression, and deterioration of quality of life. None of the patients with CIPN were treated with duloxetine (recommendation from American Society of Clinical Oncology), and only 3.2%, 1.6%, and 1.6% were treated with pregabalin, gabapentin, and amitriptyline, respectively. (4) Conclusions: Five years after the end of chemotherapy, a quarter of patients suffered from CIPN. The present study showed marked psychological distress and uncovered a failure in management in these patients.
Learn More >Anti-calcitonin gene-related peptide antibodies proved effective in the preventive treatment of chronic migraine. In this open label study, we aim to assess the effects of erenumab administration on neurophysiological and biomolecular profiles in a representative cohort of chronic migraine patients.
Learn More >Diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) is a highly frequent and debilitating clinical complication of diabetes that lacks therapies. Cellular oxidative stress regulates post-translational modifications, including SUMOylation. Here, using unbiased screens, we identified key enzymes in metabolic pathways and ion channels as novel molecular targets of SUMOylation that critically regulated their activity. Sensory neurons of diabetic patients and diabetic mice demonstrated changes in the SUMOylation status of metabolic enzymes and ion channels. In support of this, profound metabolic dysfunction, accelerated neuropathology, and sensory loss were observed in diabetic gene-targeted mice selectively lacking the ability to SUMOylate proteins in peripheral sensory neurons. TRPV1 function was impaired by diabetes-induced de-SUMOylation as well as by metabolic imbalance elicited by de-SUMOylation of metabolic enzymes, facilitating diabetic sensory loss. Our results unexpectedly uncover an endogenous post-translational mechanism regulating diabetic neuropathy in patients and mouse models that protects against metabolic dysfunction, nerve damage, and altered sensory perception.
Learn More >The mechanisms by which mobility function and neuropathic pain are mutually influenced by supraspinal plasticity in motor- and pain-related brain networks following spinal cord injury (SCI) remains poorly understood.
Learn More >This study investigates the effects of sex, education, and country of birth on clinical presentations and outcomes of interdisciplinary multimodal pain rehabilitation programs (IMMRPs). A multivariate improvement score (MIS) and two retrospective estimations of changes in pain and ability to handle life situations were used as the three overall outcomes of IMMRPs. The study population consisted of chronic pain patients within specialist care in the Swedish Quality Registry for Pain Rehabilitation (SQRP) between 2008 and 2016 at baseline (n = 39,916), and for the subset participating in IMMRPs (n = 14,666). A cluster analysis based on sex, education, and country of origin revealed significant differences in the following aspects: best baseline clinical situation was for European women with university educations and the worst baseline clinical situation was for all patients born outside Europe of both sexes and different educations (i.e., moderate-large effect sizes). In addition, European women with university educations also had the most favorable overall outcomes in response to IMMRPs (small effect sizes). These results raise important questions concerning fairness and equality and need to be considered when optimizing assessments and content and delivery of IMMRPs for patients with chronic pain.
Learn More >Migraine with aura is a highly prevalent disorder involving transient neurological disturbances associated with migraine headache. While the pathophysiology is incompletely understood, findings from clinical and basic science studies indicate a potential key role of the thalamus in the mechanisms underlying migraine with and without aura. Two recent, clinic-based MRI studies investigated the volumes of individual thalamic nuclei in migraine patients with and without aura using two different data analysis methods. Both studies found differences of thalamic nuclei volumes between patients and healthy controls, but the results of the studies were not consistent. Here, we investigated whether migraine with aura is associated with changes in thalamic volume by analysing MRI data obtained from a large, cross-sectional population-based study which specifically included women with migraine with aura (N = 156), unrelated migraine-free matched controls (N = 126), and migraine aura-free co-twins (N = 29) identified from the Danish Twin Registry. We used two advanced, validated analysis methods to assess the volume of the thalamus and its nuclei; the MAGeT Brain Algorithm and a recently developed FreeSurfer-based method based on a probabilistic atlas of the thalamic nuclei combining ex vivo MRI and histology. These approaches were very similar to the methods used in each of the two previous studies. Between-group comparisons were corrected for potential effects of age, educational level, BMI, smoking, alcohol, and hypertension using a linear mixed model. Further, we used linear mixed models and visual inspection of data to assess relations between migraine aura frequency and thalamic nuclei volumes in patients. In addition, we performed paired t-tests to compare volumes of twin pairs (N = 29) discordant for migraine with aura. None of our analyses showed any between-group differences in volume of the thalamus or of individual thalamic nuclei. Our results indicate that the pathophysiology of migraine with aura does not involve alteration of thalamic volume.
Learn More >To determine whether patients with vestibular migraine are more likely to suffer from an occipital headache than patients with migraine without vestibular symptoms.
Learn More >Abrocitinib, an oral selective Janus kinase 1 inhibitor, was effective and well tolerated in adults with moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis in a phase 2b trial. We aimed to assess the efficacy and safety of abrocitinib monotherapy in adolescents and adults with moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis.
Learn More >To evaluate pain prevalence and characteristics in children and adolescents with predominant dyskinetic and mixed (dyskinetic/spastic) cerebral palsy (CP) motor types.
Learn More >We investigated if dynamic pressure pain sensitivity in the symptomatic area is associated with pressure sensitivity in local and distant pain-free areas in cluster headache (CH). A pressure algometry set consisting of 8 rollers with fixed pressure levels ranging from 500 to 5300 g was used to assess dynamic pressure pain sensitivity in men with episodic CH. Each roller was moved from an anterior-to-posterior direction over the temporalis muscle. The load level of the first painful roller was considered the dynamic pain threshold (DPT). Further, pain elicited during DPT (roller evoked pain) was also assessed. We used a pressure algometer to determine pressure pain thresholds (PPTs) over the temporalis muscle, C5/C6 joint, second metacarpal, and tibialis anterior. Patients were assessed in an asymptomatic (remission) phase, at least 6 months after their last cluster period and without taking pharmacological treatment. Forty men with episodic CH (mean age 42 years) were included. Both outcomes, DPTs (r = 0.781, P < 0.001) and roller-evoked pain (r = 0.586; P < 0.001) were bilaterally correlated. Further, DPT, but not roller-evoked pain, was moderately associated with PPTs measured at the symptomatic (temporalis: r = 0.665, P < 0.001) and distant pain-free (C5-C6 joint: r = 0.389, P = 0.013; second metacarpal: r = 0.551, P < 0.001; and, tibialis anterior: r = 0.308, P = 0.035) points. Dynamic pressure sensitivity in the trigeminal area was correlated to pressure pain sensitivity at both symptomatic and distant pain-free areas in men with CH supporting the use of roller pressure algometry. Dynamic pressure algometry may be a new tool for assessing the status of sensitization in primary headaches.
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