Factors predicting treatment response to biological and targeted synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs in psoriatic arthritis - a systematic review and meta-analysis.

The therapeutic response of patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) varies greatly and is often unsatisfactory. Accordingly, it is essential to individualise treatment selection to minimise long-term complications. This study aimed to identify factors that might predict treatment response to biological and targeted synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (bDMARDs and tsDMARDs) in patients with PsA and to outline their potential application using artificial intelligence (AI).

Hyaluronic Acid in Rheumatology.

Hyaluronic acid (HA), also known as hyaluronan, is an anionic glycosaminoglycan widely distributed throughout various tissues of the human body. It stands out from other glycosaminoglycans as it lacks sulfation and can attain considerable size: the average human synovial HA molecule weighs about 7 million Dalton (Da), equivalent to roughly 20,000 disaccharide monomers; although some sources report a lower range of 3-4 million Da. In recent years, HA has garnered significant attention in the field of rheumatology due to its involvement in joint lubrication, cartilage maintenance, and modulation of inflammatory and/or immune responses.

Do Chronic Pain Patients Wish Spiritual Aspects to Be Integrated in Their Medical Treatment? A Cross-Sectional Study of Multiple Facilities.

Chronic pain is a complex, multidimensional experience. Spirituality is hypothesized to impact pain experience in various ways. Nevertheless, the role that spirituality plays in multimodal pain therapy remains controversial and, to date, quantitative data on whether and for which patients spiritual aspects should be considered in the treatment of chronic pain is lacking.

Including the Spiritual Dimension in Multimodal Pain Therapy. Development and Validation of the Spiritual Distress and Resources Questionnaire (SDRQ).

Context: Valid instruments for assessing spiritual resources and distress in pain therapy are scarce. The Spiritual Distress and Resources Questionnaire (SDRQ) was developed to fill this gap.

Goals: The objective of this study was to investigate the SDRQ's psychometric properties.

5'UTR polymorphism in the serotonergic receptor HTR3A gene is differently associated with striatal Dopamine D2/D3 receptor availability in the right putamen in Fibromyalgia patients and healthy controls-Preliminary evidence.

Background: Extensive literature has investigated the role of serotonin (5-HT) in the control of the central dopamine (DA) systems, and their dysfunction in the pathological conditions. 5-HT stimulates the local DA release in striatal regions via activation of various receptors including serotonin receptor-3 (5-HT3). Several studies have related polymorphisms (SNPs) in the serotonin receptor-3 (HTR3) genes to be associated with the pain modulation and endogenous pain suppression.

Pain-Associated Transcriptome Changes in Synovium of Knee Osteoarthritis Patients.

Joint pain causes significant morbidity in osteoarthritis (OA). The aetiology of joint pain in OA is not well understood. The synovial membrane as an innervated joint structure represents a potential source of peripheral pain in OA.

Bilateral Sensory Changes and High Burden of Disease in Patients With Chronic Pain and Unilateral Nondermatomal Somatosensory Deficits: A Quantitative Sensory Testing and Clinical Study.

Objectives: Widespread sensory deficits resembling hemihypoesthesia occur in 20% to 40% of chronic pain patients on the side of pain, independent of pain etiology, and have been termed nondermatomal sensory deficits (NDSDs). Sensory profiles have rarely been investigated in NDSDs.

Materials And Methods: Quantitative sensory testing according to the protocol of the German Research Network on Neuropathic Pain (DFNS) was performed in the face, hand, and foot of the painful body side and in contralateral regions in chronic pain patients.

Nondermatomal somatosensory deficits in chronic pain are associated with cerebral grey matter changes.

Objectives: Widespread sensory deficits occur in 20-40% of chronic pain patients on the side of pain, independent of pain aetiology, and are known as nondermatomal sensory deficits (NDSDs). NDSDs can occur in absence of central or peripheral nervous system lesions. We hypothesised that NDSDs were associated with cerebral grey matter changes in the sensory system and in pain processing regions, detectable with voxel-based morphometry.

[Drug treatment and interventional pain therapy in back pain patients].

The treatment of chronic, non-malignant low-back pain is based on the patients' history and the clinical examination. It can be assumed that half of the cases present with a neuropathic pain component which needs to be treated with antidepressive and antiepileptic drugs instead of "pure" analgesics. Opioids should be considered with extreme caution because of their toxicity.

Pain and psychological health status in chronic pain patients with migration background--the Zurich study.

The objective of this paper is to investigate whether there were differences in pain and psychological health status in chronic pain patients with and without migration background before and after an 8-week interdisciplinary outpatient pain programme (IOPP). One hundred eighteen consecutively assessed patients were included. Pain and psychological health were recorded prior to and after the intervention, and at the 3-, 6- and 12-month follow-up.

ATP induced brain-derived neurotrophic factor expression and release from osteoarthritis synovial fibroblasts is mediated by purinergic receptor P2X4.

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a neuromodulator involved in nociceptive hypersensitivity in the central nervous system, is also expressed in synoviocytes of osteoarthritis (OA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. We investigated the role of P2 purinoreceptors in the induction of BDNF expression in synovial fibroblasts (SF) of OA and RA patients. Cultured SF from patients with symptomatic knee OA and RA were stimulated with purinoreceptor agonists ATP, ADP, or UTP.

Effect of an interdisciplinary outpatient pain management program (IOPP) for chronic pain patients with and without migration background: a prospective, observational clinical study.

Objectives: Short- and long-term effects of an interdisciplinary outpatient pain program (IOPP) in terms of quality of life, coping strategies, experiencing of pain and pain intensity as well as the influence of age, gender, or migration background.

Design: Single, prospective cohort with assessments at baseline, posttreatment, and at 3, 6, 12 months follow-up.

Patients: A total of 175 patients with chronic, nonmalignant pain syndromes (32.

Sleep quality, the neglected outcome variable in clinical studies focusing on locomotor system; a construct validation study.

Background: In addition to general health and pain, sleep is highly relevant to judging the well-being of an individual. Of these three important outcome variables, however, sleep is neglected in most outcome studies.Sleep is a very important resource for recovery from daily stresses and strains, and any alteration of sleep will likely affect mental and physical health, especially during disease.

Goal attainment scaling as a measure of treatment success after physiotherapy for chronic low back pain.

Objectives: In some chronic conditions, patient-specific tools with individualized items have proved to be more sensitive outcome instruments than fixed-item tools; their use has not yet been investigated in chronic low back pain (cLBP).

Methods: Eleven males and 21 females [mean age 44.0 (12.

Ultrasound tissue Doppler imaging reveals no delay in abdominal muscle feed-forward activity during rapid arm movements in patients with chronic low back pain.

Study Design: Cross-sectional study.

Objective: Comparison of the timing of onset of lateral abdominal muscle activity during rapid arm movements in patients with nonspecific chronic low back pain (cLBP) and back-pain-free controls.

Summary Of Background Data: Rapid movements of the arm are normally associated with prior activation of trunk-stabilizing muscles in readiness for the impending postural perturbation.

Spinal segmental stabilisation exercises for chronic low back pain: programme adherence and its influence on clinical outcome.

Exercise rehabilitation is one of the few evidence-based treatments for chronic non-specific low back pain (cLBP), but individual success is notoriously variable and may depend on the patient's adherence to the prescribed exercise regime. This prospective study examined factors associated with adherence and the relationship between adherence and outcome after a programme of physiotherapeutic spine stabilisation exercises. A total of 32/37 patients with cLBP completed the study (mean age, 44.

Association between catastrophizing and self-rated pain and disability in patients with chronic low back pain.

Background: Catastrophizing plays an important role in models of pain chronicity, showing a consistent correlation with both pain intensity and disability. It is conceivable that these associations are mediated or confounded by other psychological attributes.

Objective: To examine the relative influence of catastrophizing and other psychological variables on pain and disability in patients with chronic low back pain.

DREAM is reduced in synovial fibroblasts of patients with chronic arthritic pain: is it a suitable target for peripheral pain management?

Introduction: The endogenous pain-relieving system depends in part on the regulation of nociceptive signals through binding of opioids to the corresponding opioid receptor. Interfering with the trans-repression effect of downstream regulatory element antagonist modulator (DREAM) on the transcription of the opioid dynorphin-encoding prodynorphin (pdyn) gene might enhance pain relief in the periphery.

Methods: Expression levels were measured in osteoarthritis (OA) synovial fibroblast-like cells (SFLCs) (n = 8) and in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from OA patients (n = 53) and healthy controls (n = 26) by real-time polymerase chain reaction.

Cross-cultural adaptation, reliability, and validity of the German version of the Pain Catastrophizing Scale.

Objective: In patients with chronic pain, catastrophizing is a significant determinant of self-rated pain intensity and disability. The Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS) was developed to assist with both treatment planning and outcome assessment; to date, no German version has been validated.

Methods: A cross-cultural adaptation of the PCS into German was carried out, strictly according to recommended methods.