Pain research & management : the journal of the Canadian Pain Society = journal de la société canadienne pour le traitement de la douleur
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Pain is considered "the 5th vital sign" that should be regularly assessed in the neonatal intensive care setting. Although over 40 pain assessment tools have been developed for neonates, their implementation in everyday practice is challenging. Epidemiological studies demonstrate that pain is still underassessed and undertreated in European NICUs. ⋯ Overall, the agreement between our staff members was moderately good for both scales. This is not enough to avoid inadequate pain assessment. More training is needed to improve NICU's staff competences in using pain scales.
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Observational Study
Retrospective Observational Study on the Characteristics of Pain and Associated Factors of Breakthrough Pain in Advanced Cancer Patients.
This study aimed to conduct a retrospective observational study to understand the status of characteristics of pain and identify potential variables influencing the clinical presentation of breakthrough cancer pain (BTP) in advanced cancer patients. ⋯ BTP resulted in poor prognosis, which has a variable presentation depending on interdependent relationships among different characteristics. Good controlling of background pain and assessment of pain-related symptoms are essential for BTP management. BTP should be managed individually, especially the invisible pain among aged patients. Furthermore, BTP-related education and training were still needed.
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Intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) is closely related to osmolarity, which fluctuates with daily activities, and hyperosmolarity may be a contributor to nucleus pulposus (NP) cells apoptosis. Aquaporin-3 (AQP-3) belongs to the family of aquaporins and mainly transports water and other small molecular proteins, which is reduced with the aging of the intervertebral disc. ERK1/2 pathway is one type of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and is associated with cellular apoptosis. ⋯ Furthermore, we found that the inhibitor U0126 could partly aggravate apoptosis of the AQP-3-overexpressed NP cells. In summary, our results suggested that overexpression of AQP-3 could protect against hyperosmolarity-induced NP cell apoptosis via promoting the activity of the ERK1/2 pathway. This study may shed light on a better understanding of the pathologic mechanism of IDD and bring AQP-3 into the therapeutic approaches for IDD treatment.
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To evaluate the relationship between oral habits, psychological status, and temporomandibular-related quality of life among college students. ⋯ More than half of the college students surveyed had specific oral habits, with a higher prevalence in women than in men. Having oral habits was related to a worse psychological status, higher risk of TMD, and worse temporomandibular-related quality of life.
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This study assessed the validity of a hypothesized model predicting that physical activity improves health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in older Japanese adults with pain, dysesthesia, and kinesiophobia following lumbar surgery. ⋯ Of the 431 respondents, 297 (median age 72 years, range 65-91 years; 158 men and 139 women) were analyzed (68.9%). The fit of the model improved based on the modification index and was acceptable comparative fit index, 0.948; Tucker-Lewis index, 0.919; root mean square error of approximation, 0.048 (90% confidence interval, 0.026-0.069), and standardized root mean square residual (0.046). The paths by which physical activities reduced pain or dysesthesia (standardized pass coefficients, -0.406) and somatic focus (-0.301) and consequently improved HRQOL were significant (pain/dysesthesia, -0.684; somatic focus, -0.218). Discussion. Our hypothesized model predicting that physical activity improves HRQOL in terms of pain, dysesthesia, and kinesiophobia in older Japanese adults after lumbar surgery was validated using cross-sectional data. Interventional studies on physical activity based on this model are required to establish the model.