Signs and Symptoms of Myofascial Pain: An International Survey of Pain Management Providers and Proposed Preliminary Set of Diagnostic Criteria.

Objective: Myofascial Pain Syndrome (MPS) is highly prevalent in pain medicine, yet there is no "gold standard" or set of validated diagnostic criteria for clinical or research use. A survey collected clinician perspectives on MPS to foster the development of a formal case definition for empirical validation.

Design: International survey.

The osteoarthritis knee model: psychophysical characteristics and putative outcomes.

Unlabelled: The knee osteoarthritis (KOA) model is a convenient and coherent archetype that is frequently used in pharmaceutical trials of drugs with analgesic and/or anti-inflammatory properties; yet, little is known about its specific pathophysiology. The presumed chronic inflammatory etiology of osteoarthritis suggests that nociceptive processes and neurogenic inflammation predominate in this condition. However, most chronic pain conditions are associated with changes in peripheral and central processing.

Complex regional pain syndrome: practical diagnostic and treatment guidelines, 4th edition.

Objective: This is the fourth edition of diagnostic and treatment guidelines for complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS; aka reflex sympathetic dystrophy).

Methods: Expert practitioners in each discipline traditionally utilized in the treatment of CRPS systematically reviewed the available and relevant literature; due to the paucity of levels 1 and 2 studies, less rigorous, preliminary research reports were included. The literature review was supplemented with knowledge gained from extensive empirical clinical experience, particularly in areas where high-quality evidence to guide therapy is lacking.

Development of a severity score for CRPS.

The clinical diagnosis of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) is a dichotomous (yes/no) categorization necessary for clinical decision-making. However, such dichotomous diagnostic categories do not convey an individual's subtle and temporal gradations in severity of the condition, and have poor statistical power when used as an outcome measure in research. This study evaluated the validity and potential utility of a continuous type score to index severity of CRPS.

Negligible analgesic tolerance seen with extended release oxymorphone: a post hoc analysis of open-label longitudinal data.

Objective: To examine the development of analgesic tolerance in patients on oxymorphone extended-release (OxymER).

Design: Post hoc analysis of data from a previously conducted prospective 1 year multi-center open-label extension study in which patients were able to titrate as needed.

Patients: Sample of 153 hip and knee osteoarthritis (OA) subjects on OxymER.

Do omega-6 and trans fatty acids play a role in complex regional pain syndrome? A pilot study.

Objectives: The study aims to compare the omega-6 (n-6) and omega-3 (n-3) highly unsaturated fatty acids (HUFA), and trans fatty acid (trans FA) status of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) patients to pain-free controls.

Design: Case control study. Setting.

Validation of proposed diagnostic criteria (the "Budapest Criteria") for Complex Regional Pain Syndrome.

Current IASP diagnostic criteria for CRPS have low specificity, potentially leading to overdiagnosis. This validation study compared current IASP diagnostic criteria for CRPS to proposed new diagnostic criteria (the "Budapest Criteria") regarding diagnostic accuracy. Structured evaluations of CRPS-related signs and symptoms were conducted in 113 CRPS-I and 47 non-CRPS neuropathic pain patients.