Articles: cations.
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Pain anticipation during conditions of uncertainty can unveil intrinsic biases, and understanding these biases can guide pain treatment interventions. This study used machine learning and functional magnetic resonance imaging to predict anticipatory responses in a pain anticipation experiment. One hundred forty-seven participants that included healthy controls (n = 57) and individuals with current and/or past mental health diagnosis (n = 90) received cues indicating upcoming pain stimuli: 2 cues predicted high and low temperatures, while a third cue introduced uncertainty. ⋯ Three distinct response profiles emerged: subjects with a negative bias towards high pain anticipation, those with a positive bias towards low pain anticipation, and individuals whose predictions during uncertainty were unbiased. These profiles remained stable over one year, were consistent across diagnosed psychopathologies, and correlated with cognitive coping styles and underlying insula anatomy. The findings suggest that individualized and stable pain anticipation occurs in uncertain conditions.
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Smoking is associated with chronic pain, but it is not established whether smoking causes pain or if the link is due to familial effects. One proposed mechanism is that smoking strengthens maladaptive cortico-striatal connectivity, which contributes to pain chronification. We leveraged a twin design to assess direct effects of smoking on pain controlling for familial confounds, and whether cortico-striatal connectivity mediates this association. ⋯ Smoking does not appear to directly cause chronic pain; rather, there may be shared biopsychosocial risk factors, including genetic influences, that explain their association. These findings can be integrated into future research to identify shared biological pathways of both chronic pain and smoking behaviours as a way to conceptualize pain chronification.
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Background: The recruitment of neutrophils to sites of localized injury or infection is initiated by changes on the surface of endothelial cells located in proximity to tissue damage. Inflammatory mediators, such as TNF-α, increase surface expression of adhesive ligands and receptors on the endothelial surface to which neutrophils tether and adhere. Neutrophils then transit through the activated endothelium to reach sites of tissue injury with little lasting vascular injury. ⋯ Similar findings were demonstrated on fibronectin, collagen I, collagen IV, and laminin, suggesting that neutrophil surface VLA-3 and CD151 are responsible for endothelial damage regardless of substrata and are likely to be operative in all bodily tissues. Conclusion: This report identifies VLA-3 and CD151 on the activated human neutrophil, which are responsible for damage to endothelial function. Targeting these molecules in vivo may demonstrate preservation of organ function during critical illness.
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Recent molecular analyses have shown that the driver genetic mutations of meningiomas were associated with the anatomic location. Among these, POLR2A mutation is common among lesions in the skull base, mainly in the cerebellopontine angle (CPA). The objective of this study was to investigate the efficacy of POLR2A mutation as a prognostic marker for CPA meningiomas. ⋯ POLR2A mutation and STR were the poor prognostic markers associated with the recurrence of CPA meningioma. For CPA meningioma cases that underwent STR, only POLR2A mutation was a poor prognostic factor. Detecting POLR2A mutation may be a cost-effective, easy, and useful marker for prognostication.
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Cerebral venous outflow disorders (CVDs) secondary to internal jugular vein (IJV) stenosis are becoming an increasingly recognized cause of significant cognitive and functional impairment in patients. There are little published data on IJV stenting for this condition. This study aims to report on procedural success. ⋯ Our experience, along with early published studies, suggests that there is significant promise to IJV revascularization techniques in these patients; however, stenting carries a high complication rate, and symptom recurrence is common. Most neurointerventionalists should not be performing IJV stenting unless they have experience with these patients and understand technical nuances (stent sizing, anatomy, patient selection), which can maximize benefit and minimize risk.