BACKGROUND The association between pain and diabetes in older people has been largely unexplored. The aim of this survey was to analyze the prevalence and characteristics of pain among Finnish men and women 65 or older with and without diabetes in primary care. METHODS All home-dwelling persons 65 years or older with diabetes (N = 527) and age and gender matched controls (N = 890) were identi...

OBJECTIVES This study aimed to determine the extent to which objectively measured sitting time at work is associated with the course of neck-shoulder pain across 1 year in blue-collar workers. METHODS Data were analysed from 625 blue-collar workers in the Danish PHysical ACTivity cohort with Objective measurements (DPHACTO) cohort study (2012-2013). Objective data on sitting time were collect...

BACKGROUND Napkin-ring sign (NRS) is an independent prognostic imaging marker of major adverse cardiac events. However, identification of NRS is challenging because of its qualitative nature. Radiomics is the process of extracting thousands of quantitative parameters from medical images to create big-data data sets that can identify distinct patterns in radiological images. Therefore, we sought...

BACKGROUND Patient-reported outcome measures are a critical tool in evaluating the efficacy of orthopedic procedures and are increasingly used in clinical trials to assess outcomes of health care. The intention of this study was to develop and culturally adapt a German version of the Self-reported Foot and Ankle Score (SEFAS) and to evaluate reliability, validity and responsiveness. METHODS A...

Activated immune cells in the spinal cord may play an important role in the development and maintenance of neuropathic pain, such as occurs in response to peripheral inflammation or tissue injury. Immune activation may therefore serve as a therapeutic target for immune modulating drugs like corticosteroids. This double-blind randomized placebo-controlled parallel-group trial aimed to investigat...

BACKGROUND Postherpetic neuralgia (PHN) is a complication of shingles (herpes zoster), a painful rash due to varicella-zoster virus reactivation. Studies of patients with PHN and zoster sine herpete (radicular pain without rash) support the notion that low-grade viral ganglionitis contributes to pain. If chronic pain reflects active infection, then antiviral therapy may help patients with PHN. ...

Nocebo effects, i.e., adverse treatment effects which are induced by patients' expectations, are known to contribute to the experience of physical symptoms such as pain and itch. A better understanding of how to minimize nocebo responses might eventually contribute to enhanced treatment effects. However, little is known about how to reduce nocebo effects. In the current randomized controlled st...

AIMS The aim of our study was to compare the efficacy, safety, and quality of life of combination therapy with controlled-release (CR) oxycodone plus pregabalin versus monotherapy with either CR oxycodone or pregabalin in patients with neuropathic pain. MATERIALS AND METHODS Patients with moderate to severe neuropathic pain, despite the use of various pharmacologic treatments prior to study e...

OBJECTIVE Correlating two unidimensional scales for measurement of self-reported pain intensity for elderly and identifying a preference for one of the scales. METHOD A study conducted with 101 elderly people living in Nursing Home who reported any pain and reached ( 13 the scores on the Mini-Mental State Examination. A Numeric Rating Scale - (NRS) of 11 points and a Verbal Descriptor Scale (...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the interobserver reproducibility of the assessment of severity of complaints, grip strength, and pressure pain threshold in patients with lateral epicondylitis in primary care. DESIGN Two physiotherapists assessed independently, and in randomized order, the severity of complaints scored on an 11-point numeric rating scale, pain-free grip strength, maximum grip strength,...