May 2012 References   Devin J. Starlanyl   for http://www.sover.net/~devstar

Brooks JC, Kong Y, Lee MC et al. 2012. Stimulus Site and Modality Dependence of Functional Activity within the Human Spinal Cord. J Neurosci.32(18):6231-6239. “We have investigated the functional response in the cervical spinal cord of 18 healthy human subjects (aged 22-40 years) to noxious thermal and non-noxious tactile stimulation of the left and right forearms. Physiological noise, which is a significant source of signal variability in the spinal cord, was accounted for in the general linear model….Nonpainful punctate stimulation of the thenar eminence provoked more diffuse activity but was still ipsilateral to the side of stimulation. These results present the first noninvasive evidence for a lateralized response to noxious and non-noxious stimuli in the human spinal cord. The development of these techniques opens the path to understanding, at a subject-specific level, central sensitization processes that contribute to chronic pain states.

Caixeta GC, Dona F, Gazzola JM. 2012. Cognitive processing and body balance in elderly subjects with vestibular dysfunction. Braz J Otorhinolaryngol. 78(2):87-95. [English, Portuguese]. “Elderly patients with chronic peripheral vestibular disease and worse performance in body balance tests have functional impairment in cognitive skills.” [Patients with balance failures must be assessed for trigger points, vestibular dysfunction, cognitive impairment, and metabolic and nutritional imbalances, among other possible causes. DJS]

Chen Q, Basford J, An KN. 2008. Ability of magnetic resonance elastography to assess taut bands. Clin Biomech (Bristol, Avon) 23(5):623-629. “Using magnetic resonance elastography, the Mayo clinic was able to image the taut bands of trigger points.  There is now objective evidence of the existence of TrPs.” [It is expensive and not available in most localities. It does prove their existence, however, and their importance cannot be disputed. Care providers must rely on the palpation techniques and their information-gathering senses including eyes, fingers and brains to locate TrPs. Those who are untrained in diagnosis and treatment of myofascial TrPs, one of the leading causes of musculoskeletal pain, and many other symptoms, must consider carefully the ethics of taking money for pain management.  They might also hasten to learn these skills from a reputable myofascial TrP school such as Myopain. DJS]

Ghazan-Shahi S, Towheed T, Hopman W. 2012. Should rheumatologists retain ownership of fibromyalgia? A survey of Ontario rheumatologists. Clin Rheumatol. [May 2 Epub ahead of print].  “Key findings were: (1) 71 % believe that rheumatologists should not retain ownership of fibromyalgia, (2) 55 % believe that fibromyalgia is primarily a psychosomatic illness as opposed to a physical illness, (3) 89 % believe that the family physician should be the main care provider for these patients, and (4) rheumatologists who consider fibromyalgia to be a physical illness were also significantly more likely to believe that rheumatologists should retain ownership of this disease…and were more likely to continue managing these patients in their practice …. The majority of Ontario rheumatologists do not wish to retain ownership of fibromyalgia. However, most of them continue to manage these patients, even though they believe that the family physician should be the main care provider for patients with fibromyalgia. Rheumatologists may be providing care to these patients primarily because this care is not available to them from their primary care physicians.”

Gonzalez-Perez LM, Infante-Cossio P, Granados-Nunez M et al. 2012. Treatment of temporomandibular myofascial pain with deep dry needling. Med Oral Patol Oral Cir Bucal. [May 1 Epub ahead of print]. “Although further studies are needed, our findings suggest that deep dry needling in the trigger point in the external pterygoid muscle can be effective in the management of patients with myofascial pain located in that muscle.”

Hansson E, Svensson H, Brorson H. 2012. Review of Dercum's disease and proposal of diagnostic criteria, diagnostic methods, classification and management. Orphanet J Rare Dis. 7(1):23. “We propose the minimal definition of Dercum's disease to be generalized overweight or obesity in combination with painful adipose tissue. The associated symptoms in Dercum's disease include obesity, fatty deposits, easy bruisability, sleep disturbances, impaired memory, depression, difficulty concentrating, anxiety, rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath, diabetes, bloating, constipation, fatigue, weakness and joint and muscle aches….The prevalence of Dercum's disease has not yet been exactly established. Aetiology: Proposed, but unconfirmed aetiologies include: nervous system dysfunction, mechanical pressure on nerves, adipose tissue dysfunction and trauma. Diagnosis and diagnostic methods: Diagnosis is based on clinical criteria and should be made by systematic physical examination and thorough exclusion of differential diagnoses. Advisably, the diagnosis should be made by a physician with a broad experience of patients with painful conditions and knowledge of family medicine, internal medicine or pain management. The diagnosis should only be made when the differential diagnoses have been excluded ….Differential diagnoses include: fibromyalgia, lipoedema, panniculitis, endocrine disorders, primary psychiatric disorders, multiple symmetric lipomatosis, familial multiple lipomatosis, and adipose tissue tumors….The following treatments have lead to some pain reduction in patients with Dercum's disease: Liposuction, analgesics, lidocaine, methotrexate and infliximab, interferon -2b, corticosteroids, calcium-channel modulators and rapid cycling hypobaric pressure. As none of the treatments have led to long lasting complete pain reduction and revolutionary results, we propose that Dercum's disease should be treated in multidisciplinary teams specialized in chronic pain. Prognosis: The pain in Dercum's disease seems to be relatively constant over time.” [Dercum’s may be mistaken for either FM or CMP, coexisting with insulin resistance. DJS]

Hargrove JB, Bennett RM, Clauw DJ. 2012. Long-Term Outcomes in Fibromyalgia Patients Treated with Noninvasive Cortical Electrostimulation. Arch Phys Med Rehabil. [Apr 20 Epub ahead of print]. “Sixty-nine originally studied subjects were eligible, 39 of which were mailed surveys. There was a 64% survey return rate.  The total FIQ score was 52.6 at baseline, 35.7 at end-of-study and 31.8 at follow-up….Subjects reported symptom improvements lasting at least two-years, with a reduction or elimination of medicine use and need to see physicians for FM….A high percentage of FM patients treated with RINCE (Reduced Impedance Noninvasive Cortical Electrostimulation) continued to experience worthwhile improvement at follow-up.” 

Jensen KB, Loitoile R, Kosek E et al. 2012. Patients with Fibromyalgia Display less Functional Connectivity in the Brain's Pain Inhibitory Network. Mol Pain. 8(1):32. 

“Patients with FM displayed less connectivity within the brain's pain inhibitory network during calibrated pressure pain, compared to healthy controls. The present study provides brain-imaging evidence on how brain regions involved in homeostatic control of pain are less connected in FM patients. It is possible that the dysfunction of the descending pain modulatory network plays an important role in maintenance of FM pain and our results may translate into clinical implications by using the functional connectivity of the pain modulatory network as an objective measure of pain dysregulation.”

Lautenbacher S. 2012. Experimental approaches in the study of pain in the elderly. Pain Med. 13 Suppl 2:S44-50. “The present review summarizes experimental data on age-related changes in pain processing. These data suggest an increase in pain threshold and a decrease in tolerance threshold, which both are dependent on the physical nature of the stressor, as well as a developing deficiency in endogenous pain inhibition, which might be paralleled by an enhanced disposition to central sensitization (stronger temporal summation). These findings are arranged in a model that allows for explaining the two seemingly divergent perspectives: age both dulls the pain sense and increases the prevalence of pain complaints. This model is based on the assumption that both excitatory and inhibitory processes are dampened with age but that the later processes age at a faster rate, leading to increasingly unbalanced pain excitation.”

Lu X, Hui-Chan CW, Tsang WW. 2012. Tai Chi, arterial compliance, and muscle strength in older adults. Eur J Prev Cardiol. [Apr 4 Epub ahead of print]. “Aerobic exercise can alleviate the declines in arterial compliance common in older adults. However, when combined with strength training, aerobic exercise may not reduce arterial compliance….Tai Chi practitioners showed significantly better haemodynamic parameters than the controls as indexed by larger and small artery compliance. They also demonstrated greater eccentric muscle strength in both knee extensors and flexors….The findings of better muscle strength without jeopardizing arterial compliance suggests that Tai Chi could be a suitable exercise for older persons to improve both cardiovascular function and muscle strength.”

Maes M, Twisk FN, Johnson C. 2012. Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME), Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), and Chronic Fatigue (CF) are distinguished accurately: Results of supervised learning techniques applied on clinical and inflammatory data. Psychiatry Res. [Apr 20 Epub ahead of print]. “There is much debate on the diagnostic classification of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME), Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) and chronic fatigue (CF). Post-exertional malaise (PEM) is stressed as a key feature. This study examines whether CF and CFS, with and without PEM, are distinct diagnostic categories. Fukuda's criteria were used to diagnose 144 patients with chronic fatigue and identify patients with CFS and CF, i.e. those not fulfilling the Fukuda's criteria. PEM was rated by means of a scale with defined scale steps between 0 and 6. CFS patients were divided into those with PEM lasting more than 24h (labeled: ME) and without PEM (labeled: CFS). The 12-item Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (FF) Rating Scale was used to measure severity of illness. Plasma interleukin-1 (IL-1), tumor necrosis factor (TNF)α , and lysozyme, and serum neopterin were employed as external validating criteria. Using fatigue, a subjective feeling of infection and PEM we found that ME, CFS, and CF were distinct categories. Patients with ME had significantly higher scores on concentration difficulties and a subjective experience of infection, and higher levels of IL-1, TNFα, and neopterin than patients with CFS. These biomarkers were significantly higher in ME and CFS than in CF patients. PEM loaded highly on the first two factors subtracted from the data set, i.e. "malaise-sickness" and "malaise-hyperalgesia". Fukuda's criteria are adequate to make a distinction between ME/CFS and CF, but ME/CFS patients should be subdivided into ME (with PEM) and CFS (without PEM).”

Maggi RG, Mozayeni BR, Pultorak EL et al. 2012. Bartonella spp. Bacteremia and Rheumatic Symptoms in Patients from Lyme Disease-endemic Region. Emerg Infect Dis.18(5):783-791. “Bartonella spp. infection has been reported in association with an expanding spectrum of symptoms and lesions. Among 296 patients examined by a rheumatologist, prevalence of antibodies against Bartonella henselae, B. koehlerae, or B. vinsonii subsp. berkhoffii (185 [62%]) and Bartonella spp. bacteremia (122 [41.1%]) was high. Conditions diagnosed before referral included Lyme disease (46.6%), arthralgia/arthritis (20.6%), chronic fatigue (19.6%), and fibromyalgia (6.1%). B. henselae bacteremia was significantly associated with prior referral to a neurologist, most often for blurred vision, subcortical neurologic deficits, or numbness in the extremities, whereas B. koehlerae bacteremia was associated with examination by an infectious disease physician. This cross-sectional study cannot establish a causal link between Bartonella spp. infection and the high frequency of neurologic symptoms, myalgia, joint pain, or progressive arthropathy in this population; however, the contribution of Bartonella spp. infection, if any, to these symptoms should be systematically investigated.”

Martinez-Jauand M, Sitges C, Rodriguez V et al. 2012. Pain sensitivity in fibromyalgia is associated with catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene. Eur J Pain. [Apr 24 Epub ahead of print]. “Recent evidence suggests that genetic factors might contribute to individual differences in pain sensitivity, risk for developing clinical pain conditions and efficacy of pain treatments. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship of three common haplotypes of COMT gene affecting the metabolism of catecholamines on pain sensitivity in patients with fibromyalgia (FM)….According with previous research, our findings revealed that haplotypes of the COMT gene and genotypes of the Val158Met polymorphism play a key role on pain sensitivity in FM patients.”

Mohammad A, Carey JJ, Storan E et al. 2012. Prevalence of fibromyalgia among patients with chronic hepatitis C infection: relationship to viral characteristics and quality of life.

J Clin Gastroenterol. 46(5):407-412. “This study reveals a high prevalence of FMS (57%) among subjects with chronic HCV infection, one third of whom reported some degree of functional impairment. Recognition and management of this condition in such patients will help improve their quality of life.”

Muzammil S, Cooper HC. 2011. Acute pancreatitis and fibromyalgia: Cytokine link. N Am J Med Sci. 3(4):206-208. [Case Report] “There is a known increase in levels of cytokines in patients with fibromyalgia. Part of the pathophysiology of acute pancreatitis is related to raised cytokines and immune deregulations. We hypothesize that elevated levels of cytokines in fibromyalgia has led to acute pancreatitis in our patient. Further epidemiological research on the incidence of pancreatitis in cytokine mediated conditions such as fibromyalgia is required.”

Oh TH, Hoskin TL, Luedtke CA et al. 2012. Predictors of clinical outcome in fibromyalgia after a brief interdisciplinary fibromyalgia treatment program: single center experience. PM R. 4(4):257-263. “Patients with younger age, more years of education (with college or graduate degree), higher baseline FIQ depression score, lower tender point count, and absent abuse history experience greater benefit from a brief fibromyalgia treatment program.” [The Mayo Clinic has such a program, and generated this research. It is not known if patients are taught about co-existing myofascial trigger points at this clinic. DJS]

Ortega-Santiago R, de-la-Llave-Rincon AI, Laguarta-Val S et al. 2012. [Neurophysiological advances in carpal tunnel syndrome: process of central sensitization or local neuropathy]. Rev Neurol. 54(8):490-496. [Spanish] “Several studies…support the presence of a complex process of peripheral and central sensitization in patients with CTS which may constitute a negative prognosis factor for the management of these patients….The advances in neurosciences in the last years support the presence of peripheral and central sensitization mechanisms in CTS. These mechanisms justify the necessity of conceptual changes and in the management, both conservative and surgical, of this syndrome. Additionally, central sensitization can also play a relevant role in the prognosis of CTS since it can constitute a negative prognosis factor for its treatment.

Prist V, De Wilde VA, Masquelier E. 2012. Ann Phys Rehabil Med 55(3):174-189. This case report presents a 49-year old woman suffering from widespread pain since 2002. Her gait pattern included hip adduction, flexed hips and knees and bilateral equines hip deformity.  She was diagnosed by several clinicians, but each had a different idea of what she had: fibromyalgia with dystonia, CNS injury, Little’s disease, intramedullary spinal cord tumor, or multiple sclerosis.  The authors conclude that the logical diagnosis is fibromyalgia with dystonia; the dystonia being due to generalized analgesic protective attitude. [The patient was not assessed for myofascial trigger points. If she had been, by someone well-trained in myofascial medicine, the diagnosis might have been different.  Other diagnoses may be involved, and central sensitization is certainly part of this patient’s cause of misery, but as to what the cause behind the descriptions are, the TrP assessment and postural analysis must be done to complete the picture. DJS].

Rra ML, Angst F, Beck T et al. 2012. Horticultural therapy for patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain: results of a pilot study. Altern Ther Health Med. 18(2):44-50. “Seventy-nine patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain (fibromyalgia or chronic, nonspecific back pain) participated in the study….The addition of horticultural therapy to a pain management program improved participants' physical and mental health and their coping ability with respect to chronic musculoskeletal pain.”

Tran MT, Arendt-Nielsen L, Kupers R et al. 2012. Multiple chemical sensitivity: On the scent of central sensitization. Int J Hyg Environ Health. [Apr 7 Epub ahead of print]. “Increased capsaicin-induced secondary punctate hyperalgesia was demonstrated in MCS patients without comorbid, overlapping disorders, suggesting facilitated central sensitization in MCS.”

Wang C, Ge HY, Ibarra JM et al. 2012. Spatial Pain Propagation over Time Following Painful Glutamate Activation of Latent Myofascial Trigger Points in Humans. J Pain. [Apr 25 Epub ahead of print]. “The aim of this present study was to test the hypothesis that tonic nociceptive stimulation of latent myofascial trigger points (MTPs) may induce a spatially enlarged area of pressure pain hyperalgesia….This study shows that MTPs are associated with an early occurrence of a locally enlarged area of pressure hyperalgesia associated with spreading central sensitization. Inactivation of MTPs may prevent spatial pain propagation.”

Yamagucchi A, Ogino Y, Iwakoshi C et al. 2012. [Trigger point therapy for myofascial pain in cancer patients (second report)-analysis results of special-use-results surveillance by neovitacain® injection] Gan To Kagaku Ryoho 39(4):605-611. [Japanese] “Injection of trigger points on both sides of the spine in cancer patients relieved musculoskeletal pain of cancer patients.” [This study was financed by Vitacain pharmaceuticals and had no comparison done with other local anesthetics. There was no comparison between this medication and plain local anesthetic, so we can’t tell if there was any improvement in the treatment over trigger point injection with procaine or Xylocaine. DJS]