Confounders for prognostic accuracy of neuron-specific enolase after cardiac arrest: A retrospective cohort study.

Aim: To evaluate neuron-specific enolase (NSE) thresholds for prediction of neurological outcome after cardiac arrest and to analyze the influence of hemolysis and confounders.

Methods: Retrospective analysis from a cardiac arrest registry. Determination of NSE serum concentration and hemolysis-index (h-index) 48-96 hours after cardiac arrest.

Ultrasound-controlled cryoneurolysis for peripheral mononeuropathies: a retrospective cohort study.

Cryoneurolysis is a potential therapy for peripheral mononeuropathies, but randomized studies of its effects on the duration of pain reduction are lacking. This retrospective cohort study evaluated the analgesic effects of cryoneurolysis on patients with refractory peripheral mononeuropathy. We included 24 patients who underwent ultrasound-guided cryoneurolysis between June 2018 and July 2022.

Risk factors for chronic postsurgical pain in visceral surgery: a matched case-control analysis.

Purpose: Chronic postsurgical pain (CPSP) after abdominal visceral surgery is an underestimated long-term complication with relevant impact on health-related quality of life and socioeconomic costs. Early identification of affected patients is important. We aim to identify the incidence and risk factors for CPSP in this patient population.

[Multiprofessional treatment approach in chronic back pain].

International guidelines recommend involving various professions and disciplines at an early stage in the event of chronic back pain. In connection with this, terms such as multiprofessional or interprofessional interventions are often mentioned without a uniform idea of what they mean. This article is intended to provide an overview of multiprofessional interventions for patients with chronic back pain and the integration into a meaningful interdisciplinary and interprofessional multimodal treatment concept.

Guilt is effectively induced by a written auto-biographical essay but not reduced by experimental pain.

Introduction: The aim of the present study was (1) to validate the method of guilt-induction by means of a written auto-biographical essay and (2) to test whether experimental pain is apt to alleviate the mental burden of guilt, a concept receiving support from both empirical research and clinical observation.

Methods: Three independent groups of healthy male participants were recruited. Group allocation was not randomized but within group pain/sham administration was counterbalanced over the two test-days.

Radiofrequency Neurotomy Does Not Cause Fatty Degeneration of the Lumbar Paraspinal Musculature in Patients with Chronic Lumbar Pain-A Retrospective 3D-Computer-Assisted MRI Analysis Using iSix Software.

Objective: The present study aimed (1) to analyze the relative paraspinal autochthonous intramuscular fat volume before and after radiofrequency neurotomy (RFN) and (2) to compare it to the contralateral non-treated side.

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Setting: Inselspital, University Hospital Bern, University of Bern.

The impact of chronic pain on creative ideation: An examination of the underlying attention-related psychophysiological mechanisms.

Background: Attentional deficits in patients with chronic pain are common and well studied. Yet, few studies have examined the effects of chronic pain on more complex cognitive abilities that rely on well-functioning attentional systems. With the current study, we aimed to investigate whether the impact of chronic pain on attention affects creative ideation as measured with an adaptation of the alternate uses task (AUT).

The effect of chronic pain on voluntary and involuntary capture of attention: An event-related potential study.

Although the interrupting effect of chronic pain on voluntary-directed attention is well-documented, research on the impact of chronic pain on involuntary-directed attention remains incomplete. This study aimed to investigate the influence of chronic pain on involuntary as well as voluntary allocation of attention as, respectively, indexed by the P3a and P3b components in the event-related potential derived from the electroencephalogram. Both involuntary and voluntary captures of attention were compared between 33 patients with chronic pain and 33 healthy controls using an auditory three-stimulus oddball task (with standard, target, and unexpected distractor tones).

Telemedicine for chronic pain treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic: Do pain intensity and anxiousness correlate with patient acceptance?

Introduction: Recent recommendations for the treatment of chronic pain patients during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic suggest using telemedicine instead of in-person consultations. Knowing whether patients with chronic pain are receptive to the use of telemedicine during a pandemic might improve tailored care.

Objective: The aims of the present study were to assess patients' acceptance of telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic in Switzerland and to examine the correlation of acceptance with pain intensity and anxiousness.

Noninvasive Detection of Intracranial Hypertension by Novel Ultrasound Time-Harmonic Elastography.

Objective: A method for measuring intracranial pressure (ICP) noninvasively has long been sought after in neurology and neurosurgery. Treatment failure in individuals presenting with unspecific symptoms such as headache, gait disturbance, or visual impairment occurring in response to increased ICP can lead to irreversible brain injury, progressive disability, and death. Guidelines for diagnostic ICP measurement recommend intracranial placement of pressure tip catheters or lumbar puncture (LP) despite their invasiveness and possible complications.

Automated Assessment of Brain CT After Cardiac Arrest-An Observational Derivation/Validation Cohort Study.

Objectives: Prognostication of outcome is an essential step in defining therapeutic goals after cardiac arrest. Gray-white-matter ratio obtained from brain CT can predict poor outcome. However, manual placement of regions of interest is a potential source of error and interrater variability.

[Increase in New Approvals of Strong Opioid Medications in Switzerland].

Increase in New Approvals of Strong Opioid Medications in Switzerland Consumption of pain medication, especially opioids, has risen sharply since 2000, both worldwide and in Switzerland. However, it is unknown whether this increased use is associated with an increase in new approvals of pain medications. An analysis of new approvals of painkillers in Switzerland showed a significant increase from the year 2000 onwards.

[Diagnostic and therapeutic nerve blocks in pain therapy].

Diagnostic and therapeutic nerve blocks in pain therapy Nerve blocks are not only performed in anaesthesiology to enable surgery, but also in pain therapy to diagnose and treat localised pain. For diagnostic purposes a minimal dose of local anaesthetic is applied directly to the nerve. Ultrasound has recently become the most precise and practicable tool to localise the nerve.

Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy Evaluated by Brain Autopsy and Neuroprognostication After Cardiac Arrest.

Importance: Neuroprognostication studies are potentially susceptible to a self-fulfilling prophecy as investigated prognostic parameters may affect withdrawal of life-sustaining therapy.

Objective: To compare the results of prognostic parameters after cardiac arrest (CA) with the histopathologically determined severity of hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) obtained from autopsy results.

Design, Setting, And Participants: In a retrospective, 3-center cohort study of all patients who died following cardiac arrest during their intensive care unit stay and underwent autopsy between 2003 and 2015, postmortem brain histopathologic findings were compared with post-CA brain computed tomographic imaging, electroencephalographic (EEG) findings, somatosensory-evoked potentials, and serum neuron-specific enolase levels obtained during the intensive care unit stay.

Time-Resolved Response of Cerebral Stiffness to Hypercapnia in Humans.

Cerebral blood flow, cerebral stiffness (CS) and intracranial pressure are tightly linked variables of cerebrovascular reactivity and cerebral autoregulation. Transtemporal ultrasound time-harmonic elastography was used for rapid measurement of CS changes in 10 volunteers before, during and after administration of a gas mixture of 95% O and 5% CO (carbogen). Within the first 2.

Effect of electroacupuncture on sedation requirements during colonoscopy: a prospective placebo-controlled randomised trial.

Introduction: Propofol provides excellent sedation during colonoscopy. However, its application, namely when used together with an opioid, is associated with cardiopulmonary depression. Acupuncture is used nowadays for the treatment of pain and anxiety, and also to induce sedation.

How tissue fluidity influences brain tumor progression.

Mechanical properties of biological tissues and, above all, their solid or fluid behavior influence the spread of malignant tumors. While it is known that solid tumors tend to have higher mechanical rigidity, allowing them to aggressively invade and spread in solid surrounding healthy tissue, it is unknown how softer tumors can grow within a more rigid environment such as the brain. Here, we use in vivo magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) to elucidate the role of anomalous fluidity for the invasive growth of soft brain tumors, showing that aggressive glioblastomas (GBMs) have higher water content while behaving like solids.

RBM3 and CIRP expressions in targeted temperature management treated cardiac arrest patients-A prospective single center study.

Background: Management of cardiac arrest patients includes active body temperature control and strict prevention of fever to avoid further neurological damage. Cold-shock proteins RNA-binding motif 3 (RBM3) and cold inducible RNA-binding protein (CIRP) expressions are induced in vitro in response to hypothermia and play a key role in hypothermia-induced neuroprotection.

Objective: To measure gene expressions of RBM3, CIRP, and inflammatory biomarkers in whole blood samples from targeted temperature management (TTM)-treated post-cardiac arrest patients for the potential application as clinical biomarkers for the efficacy of TTM treatment.

Timing of brain computed tomography and accuracy of outcome prediction after cardiac arrest.

Aim: Gray-white-matter ratio (GWR) calculated from head CT is a radiologic index of tissue changes associated with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy after cardiac arrest (CA). Evidence from previous studies indicates high specificity for poor outcome prediction at GWR thresholds of 1.10-1.

Delayed recognition of emotional facial expressions in Bell's palsy.

We investigated the impact of acute facial palsy on the recognition of emotional facial expressions. Thirty-one patients with acute facial palsy and 30 healthy controls performed a well-established test battery with tasks both for mere face recognition (FACE) and for recognition of emotional facial expressions (EMO). Participants were tested at disease onset (t1) and about eight weeks thereafter (t2).

Reference values of conditioned pain modulation.

Background and aims Endogenous pain modulation can be studied in humans by conditioned pain modulation (CPM): pain induced by a test stimulus is attenuated by a distantly applied noxious conditioning stimulus. The detection of impaired CPM in individual patients is of potential importance to understand the pathophysiology and predict outcomes. However, it requires the availability of reference values.

Unresponsive wakefulness or coma after cardiac arrest-A long-term follow-up study.

Objective: To investigate the clinical course and early prognostic markers in cardiac arrest (CA) patients discharged from the intensive care unit (ICU) in an unresponsive wakefulness syndrome (UWS) or coma.

Methods: 89 patients were identified from a prospective CA database. Follow-up was conducted by telephone interviews with legal guardians, evaluation of re-admission and rehabilitation reports assessing core elements of the coma recovery scale-revised (CRS-R).

Progressive supranuclear palsy and idiopathic Parkinson's disease are associated with local reduction of in vivo brain viscoelasticity.

Objectives: To apply three-dimensional multifrequency MR-elastography (3DMRE) for the measurement of local cerebral viscoelasticity changes in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) and progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP).

Methods: T1-weighted anatomical imaging and 3DMRE were performed in 17 PD and 20 PSP patients as well as 12 controls. Two independent viscoelasticity parameters, |G*| and φ, were reconstructed combining seven harmonic vibration frequencies (30-60 Hz).