Articles: function.
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Critical care medicine · Apr 2024
Association of Early Dexmedetomidine Utilization With Clinical and Functional Outcomes Following Moderate-Severe Traumatic Brain Injury: A Transforming Clinical Research and Knowledge in Traumatic Brain Injury Study.
To examine early sedation patterns, as well as the association of dexmedetomidine exposure, with clinical and functional outcomes among mechanically ventilated patients with moderate-severe traumatic brain injury (msTBI). ⋯ Variation exists in early sedation choice among mechanically ventilated patients with msTBI. Early dexmedetomidine exposure was not associated with improved 6-month functional outcomes in the entire population, although may have clinical benefit in patients with indications for ICP monitoring.
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Chronic pain associated with osteoarthritis (OA) remains an intractable problem with few effective treatment options. New approaches are needed to model the disease biology and to drive discovery of therapeutics. We present an in vitro model of OA pain, where dorsal root ganglion (DRG) sensory neurons were sensitized by a defined mixture of disease-relevant inflammatory mediators, here called Sensitizing PAin Reagent Composition or SPARC. ⋯ We screened ∼3000 approved drugs and mechanistically focused compounds, yielding data from over 1.2 million individual neurons with detailed assessment of functional OA-SPARC phenotype rescue and orthogonal "off-target" effects. Analysis of confirmed hits revealed diverse potential analgesic mechanisms including ion channel modulators and other mechanisms including MEK inhibitors and tyrosine kinase modulators. Our results suggest that the Raf-MEK-ERK axis in DRG neurons may integrate the inputs from multiple upstream inflammatory mediators found in osteoarthritis patient joints, and MAPK pathway activation in DRG neurons may contribute to chronic pain in patients with osteoarthritis.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
The Effect of St. John's Wort Oil (Hypericum Perforatum L.) in Knee Osteoarthritis: A Randomized Controlled and Qualitative Study.
Reducing pain and improving physical function are critical in the treatment of osteoarthritis. Although individuals use St. John's Wort oil to relieve pain due to osteoarthritis, no scientific research has been found investigating its effectiveness. ⋯ The results show that St. John's Wort oil helps people with knee osteoarthritis feel less pain and become physically more active. Additional research is warranted to better understand the effect of St. John's Wort oil on pain intensity and physical functions in people with knee osteoarthritis.
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Neck pain is common among individuals with migraine, but there is a lack of information of how this comorbidity can be associated with cervical muscle function. This controlled cross-sectional study aimed to compare cervical muscle function, activity, and sensitization in women with migraine, neck pain, both, and neither. ⋯ The diagnosis of migraine and chronic neck pain is associated with altered function and activity of the cervical muscles. However, the test-induced pain had an important contribution to worse cervical muscle endurance. This suggests that the therapeutic approach should focus on de-sensitization of the trigeminal-cervical complex when dealing with the comorbidity of migraine and cervical pain.
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In 2010, the Office of the US Army Surgeon General recommended the Veterans Administration (VA) assess pain using the Defense and Veterans Pain Rating Scale (DVPRS). One item in the DVPRS is for measuring pain intensity. This item contains a combination of five response metrics: categories, faces, colors, numbers, and functional descriptors. A few studies have supported patients' and health care providers' preferences for the DVPRS and its psychometric properties. However, they also left uncertainties about its usability and validity. ⋯ Results from this study inform the nursing community about the DVPRS' pain intensity item, which combines multiple response metrics. The results support the need for nursing units to generate and standardize procedures for using the item to measure multi-site pain and for interpreting and documenting patients' non-numeric responses. The effects of such procedures on the measure's usability and psychometric properties warrants additional investigation.