Central Nervous System Factors Research Articles

Pain in focus in patients with osteoarthritis

Introduction. Peripheral joint osteoarthritis is the leading cause of musculoskeletal pain and functional limitation. Osteoarthritis has a high prevalence and incidence and, therefore great socioeconomic importance. Clinical presentation. Pain in osteoarthritis results from a complex interaction of sensory, affective, and cognitive processes that include numerous abnormal cellular mechanisms at the affected joints and different levels of the nervous system involved in the pathophysiological mechanisms of chronic pain (spinal and supraspinal). In chronic pain states, central nervous system factors are particularly prominent. Although there are several ways to determine pain sensitivity, data suggest that assessing pressure pain threshold (i.e., tenderness to palpation) is the most reliable and reproducible method for identifying individuals with a centralized pain state. Conclusion. Significant advances in our understanding of pain pathophysiology and pain biomarkers are finally making the vision of ?personalized analgesia?. Clinicians can identify the sub-sets of individuals with what were once considered purely ?peripheral? pain syndromes and treat these patients with approaches directed more centrally than peripherally.

Liver cancer: neonatal estrogen enhances induction by a carcinogen.

A single injection of 100 micrograms of estradiol benzoate into newborn rats was followed after weaning by dietary treatment with one of two dosages of the carcinogen N-hydroxy-N-2-fluorenylacetamide. Autopsies 26 weeks later showed a higher incidence of liver cancer in male and, particularly, female rats injected with hormone than in controls. The weights of livers were greater but gonads were smaller in size in the estradiol groups. Endocrine and possibly centralnervous-system factors may play roles in formation of liver tumors.