Cerebral blood flow dynamics during pain processing in patients with fibromyalgia syndrome.

Objectives: Increased cerebral blood flow during processing of acute pain has repeatedly been observed in fibromyalgia syndrome. The study investigated the time dynamics of the pain-related hemodynamic response in fibromyalgia using transcranial Doppler sonography.

Methods: In 25 women with fibromyalgia and 25 healthy participants, blood flow velocities in the anterior and middle cerebral arteries of both hemispheres were recorded, while heat stimuli of 45°C were applied to their forearms.

Cerebral blood flow dynamics during pain processing investigated by functional transcranial Doppler sonography.

Objective: Functional transcranial Doppler sonography (fTCD) enables reliable quantification of cerebral blood flow modulation during neural activation processes. Its high-time resolution, relatively simple technical arrangement, and low costs could make fTCD a useful tool in the investigation of brain activity underlying pain experience in fundamental and clinical research. The present pilot study explored the suitability of this technique to investigate cerebral hemodynamics during the processing of experimental heat pain.

Thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) and metoclopramide testing in infertile women.

Thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) determinations before and after thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) stimulation were obtained in 834 infertile women, from 1982 until 1985. Thyroid function disturbances were seen in 20% of the women, in accordance with the prevalence in South Germany. Postcoital tests were significantly poorer in women with subclinical hypothyroidism than in euthyroid patients.

[Incidence and prerequisites for therapy-independent pregnancy in sterile patients].

15.6% of 857 women who had been treated because of sterility in the infertility centre of the Department of Gynaecology of the University of Heidelberg between May 1982 and June 1985, became pregnant up to June 1986, independent of the therapy. Favourable conditions for the occurrence of pregnancy were provided by secondary sterility and miscarriages in the previous history (in case of non-hormonal disturbances only).