Complex regional pain syndrome 1 – the Swiss cohort study

BACKGROUND: Little is known about the course of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome 1 and potential factors influencing the course of this disorder over time. The goal of this study is a) to set up a database with patients suffering from suspected CRPS 1 in an initial stadium, b) to perform investigations on epidemiology, diagnosis, prognosis, and socioeconomics within the database and c) to develop a prognostic risk assessment tool for patients with CRPS 1 taking into account symptomatology and specific therapies. METHODS/DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. Patients suffering from a painful swelling of the hand or foot which appeared within 8 weeks after a trauma or a surgery and which cannot be explained by conditions that would otherwise account for the degree of pain and dysfunction will be included. In accordance with the recommendations of International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF model), standardised and validated questionnaires will be used. Patients will be monitored over a period of 2 years at 6 scheduled visits (0 and 6 weeks, 3, 6, 12, and 24 months). Each visit involves a physical examination, registration of therapeutic interventions, and completion of the various study questionnaires. Outcomes involve changes in health status, quality of life and costs/utility. DISCUSSION: This paper describes the rationale and design of patients with CRPS 1. Ideally, potential risk factors may be identified at an early stage in order to initiate an early and adequate treatment in patients with increased risk for delayed recovery

Dor posterior baixa e dor pélvica: o que interessa ao proctologista? Lower back and pelvic pain: what does concern to the proctologist?

Um do mais intrigante e frequente sintoma de doenças agudas ou crônicas é a dor, sobretudo quando aparece sem um substrato anatomo-patológico facilmente identificável, o que dificulta o tratamento e favorece sua persistência. A dor crônica, generalizada ou localizada, transtorna a vida da pessoa, cuja qualidade é significativamente afetada na proporção da intensidade e continuidade da dor. A dor pélvica e a dor posterior baixa são sintomas relativamente comuns, principalmente por estarem relacionados etiologicamente com mais de uma centena de doenças - desde as que são de origem infecciosa até as inflamatórias inespecíficas, passando pelas que são decorrentes de alterações osteomusculares carências ou funcionais, até às neoplásicas eàs de causas indeterminadas. Além disso, há fatores estruturais sobrecarregados pelos atuais estilos de vida, não só em relaçãoà postura física, como permanecer sentado por longo período de tempo, mas também por falta de exercícios que deveriam ser praticados como preparo para o cotidiano. Soma-se, ainda, a estimativa de que 60% das pessoas estão na faixa do sobrepeso e 25% são obesas. Pela frequência de aparecimento e por sua relação com os órgãos pélvicos, a dor pélvica e a dor posterior baixa, cuja investigação pode envolver profissionais de várias áreas, devem ser do obrigatório interesse do médico coloproctologista.<br>Pain is one the most intriguing and frequent symptom of diseases, above all when it appears without an easily identifiable anatomic pathological substratum. Widespread or located chronic pain upsets the person's life whose quality is significantly affected. Chronic pelvic pain syndrome is a conundrum that may be only partly explained; it is relatively common and etiologically related with more than a hundred diseases (infectious and/or inflammatory) perceived in structures related to the pelvis. "Add to that a general lack of exercise, poor diet, and an overall increase in peoples' weight. With 61 percent of the population overweight (and 27 percent of that group diagnosed as clinically obese), it should be no surprise that this degree of increased weight causes more stress and strain on the pelvis and those articulations that we use when standing, walking, and running.1 Patients also expose themselves to a variety of traumas that often do not heal properly, leading to osteoarthritis, fibrotic joint capsules, and myofascial trigger points."13 For the emergence frequency and for its relationship with the pelvic organs, the pelvic pain and the low back pain can be considered a multifaceted problem, with investigation requiring a multidisciplinary approach involving professionals of several areas, so they should be of the obligatory interest of the proctologist

Comprehensive RNA-Seq Expression Analysis of Sensory Ganglia with a Focus on Ion Channels and GPCRs in Trigeminal Ganglia

The specific functions of sensory systems depend on the tissue-specific expression of genes that code for molecular sensor proteins that are necessary for stimulus detection and membrane signaling. Using the Next Generation Sequencing technique (RNA-Seq), we analyzed the complete transcriptome of the trigeminal ganglia (TG) and dorsal root ganglia (DRG) of adult mice. Focusing on genes with an expression level higher than 1 FPKM (fragments per kilobase of transcript per million mapped reads), we detected the expression of 12984 genes in the TG and 13195 in the DRG. To analyze the specific gene expression patterns of the peripheral neuronal tissues, we compared their gene expression profiles with that of the liver, brain, olfactory epithelium, and skeletal muscle. The transcriptome data of the TG and DRG were scanned for virtually all known G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) as well as for ion channels. The expression profile was ranked with regard to the level and specificity for the TG. In total, we detected 106 non-olfactory GPCRs and 33 ion channels that had not been previously described as expressed in the TG. To validate the RNA-Seq data, in situ hybridization experiments were performed for several of the newly detected transcripts. To identify differences in expression profiles between the sensory ganglia, the RNA-Seq data of the TG and DRG were compared. Among the differentially expressed genes (> 1 FPKM), 65 and 117 were expressed at least 10-fold higher in the TG and DRG, respectively. Our transcriptome analysis allows a comprehensive overview of all ion channels and G protein-coupled receptors that are expressed in trigeminal ganglia and provides additional approaches for the investigation of trigeminal sensing as well as for the physiological and pathophysiological mechanisms of pain