Mark Connelly

Three new datasets supporting use of the Numerical Rating Scale (NRS-11) for children's self-reports of pain intensity.

ABSTRACT Despite wide usage of the Numerical Rating Scale (NRS) for self‐report of pain intensity in clinical practice with children and adolescents, validation data are lacking. We present here three datasets from studies in which the NRS was used together with another self‐report scale. Study A compared post‐operative pain ratings on the NRS with scores on the Faces Pain Scale‐Revised (FPS‐R) in 69 children age 7–17 years who had undergone a variety of surgical procedures. Study B compared post‐operative pain ratings on the NRS with scores on the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) in 29 children age 9–17 years who had undergone pectus excavatum repair. Study C compared ratings of remembered immunization pain in 236 children who comprised an NRS group and a sex‐ and age‐matched VAS group. Correlations of the NRS with the FPS‐R and VAS were r = 0.87 and 0.89 in Studies A and B, respectively. In Study C, the distributions of scores on the NRS and VAS were very similar except that scores closest to the no pain anchor were more likely to be selected on the VAS than the NRS. The NRS can be considered functionally equivalent to the VAS and FPS‐R except for very mild pain (<1/10). We conclude that use of the NRS is tentatively supported for clinical practice with children of 8 years and older, and we recommend further research on the lower age limit and on standardized age‐appropriate anchors and instructions for this scale.

Pain coping skills training and lifestyle behavioral weight management in patients with knee osteoarthritis: A randomized controlled study

Summary Combined training in pain and weight management in overweight and obese OA patients resulted in improved pain and other outcomes compared to either training alone. ABSTRACT Overweight and obese patients with osteoarthritis (OA) experience more OA pain and disability than patients who are not overweight. This study examined the long‐term efficacy of a combined pain coping skills training (PCST) and lifestyle behavioral weight management (BWM) intervention in overweight and obese OA patients. Patients (n = 232) were randomized to a 6‐month program of: 1) PCST + BWM; 2) PCST‐only; 3) BWM‐only; or 4) standard care control. Assessments of pain, physical disability (Arthritis Impact Measurement Scales [AIMS] physical disability, stiffness, activity, and gait), psychological disability (AIMS psychological disability, pain catastrophizing, arthritis self‐efficacy, weight self‐efficacy), and body weight were collected at 4 time points (pretreatment, posttreatment, and 6 months and 12 months after the completion of treatment). Patients randomized to PCST + BWM demonstrated significantly better treatment outcomes (average of all 3 posttreatment values) in terms of pain, physical disability, stiffness, activity, weight self‐efficacy, and weight when compared to the other 3 conditions (Ps < 0.05). PCST + BWM also did significantly better than at least one of the other conditions (ie, PCST‐only, BWM‐only, or standard care) in terms of psychological disability, pain catastrophizing, and arthritis self‐efficacy. Interventions teaching overweight and obese OA patients pain coping skills and weight management simultaneously may provide the more comprehensive long‐term benefits.

Effects of day-to-day affect regulation on the pain experience of patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Abstract Individual differences in the regulation of affect are known to impact pain and other symptoms in rheumatoid arthritis. However, no studies have yet used a rigorous daily diary methodology to address the question of whether current pain is reduced when positive or negative affects are effectively regulated. We used a prospective, repeated daily sampling design to infer the regulation of affect from day‐to‐day changes in affect intensity and examined how these changes in affect were prospectively related to pain from rheumatoid arthritis. Ninety‐four adult patients diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis completed daily measures of pain and positive and negative affect over a period of 30 days. Information on demographic and disease status variables was collected during a medical evaluation. Results of hierarchical linear model analyses indicated that the regulation of both positive and negative affect from the prior day to the current day predicted significantly greater decreases in pain that day, resulting in up to a 28% reduction in pain intensity. These findings were partly influenced by disease status and demographic variables. This study suggests that the day‐to‐day regulation of negative and positive affect is a key variable for understanding the pain experience of individuals with rheumatoid arthritis and is a potentially important target for intervention.

Characterization of Circulating Endothelial Cells in Acute Myocardial Infarction

Features of endothelial cells in blood samples may eventually permit prediction of atherosclerotic plaque rupture events. Tell-Tale Cells In Edgar Allan Poe’s short story The Tell-Tale Heart, the narrator murders an old man and hides the body under the floorboards. The guilty murderer imagines that he hears the beating of the dead man’s heart emanating from the corpse underfoot—unwanted evidence of his guilt. But what if the body could leak evidence of a fragile condition before suffering a heart attack? The tale told could be frightening, yes, but the information may allow intervention at a crucial time in the pathophysiological process of heart disease. Now, Damani et al. take crucial first steps toward defining a clinical measure that could predict a thus-far unpredictable, myocardial infarction (MI)–associated event: acute atherosclerotic plaque rupture. Many people tell a personal story of a friend or relative who had a normal stress test just weeks before suffering a heart attack as a result of plaque rupture. Indeed, diagnosis of stable coronary artery disease (CAD) is now possible using stress tests and coronary artery imaging. In contrast, there are no clinically useful tests that warn of impending cardiovascular maladies caused by atherosclerotic plaque rupture. Physicians thus require a noninvasive, clinically feasible assay for a macromolecule or cell in blood that can identify people at risk for this condition, which is increasing in incidence as the population ages and widens. Endothelial cells (ECs) are normally found lining the blood vessels, and leakage into the circulation is evidence of ongoing injury to arteries that occurs on the way to potentially lethal plaque rupture. Elevated amounts of circulating endothelial cells (CECs) were previously linked to acute arterial catastrophes, but these measures have not yet made it into the clinic. Using automated, clinically feasible, three-channel fluorescence microscopy technology that can detect and permit isolation of rare cells, the authors measured and characterized CECs in healthy subjects and in patients who had experienced a type of heart attack known to manifest after acute arterial plaque rupture. CECs were elevated significantly in patients, relative to controls, and this elevation was not correlated with other measures of heart tissue death. Damani et al. also found that acute MI patients specifically displayed multicellular, multinuclear EC clusters and ECs with larger cellular and nuclear areas, relative to age-matched controls and patients with peripheral vascular disease (narrowing of arteries in the legs and feet). Although the study must be conducted in more patients and validated in an independent cohort, the new work suggests that tell-tale CECs may be useful in the clinic as evidence of ongoing plaque rupture and as a warning of possible heart attack in the near future. Acute myocardial infarction (MI), which involves the rupture of existing atheromatous plaque, remains highly unpredictable despite recent advances in the diagnosis and treatment of coronary artery disease. Accordingly, a clinical measurement that can predict an impending MI is desperately needed. Here, we characterize circulating endothelial cells (CECs) using an automated and clinically feasible CEC three-channel fluorescence microscopy assay in 50 consecutive patients with ST-segment elevation MI and 44 consecutive healthy controls. CEC counts were significantly elevated in MI cases versus controls, with median numbers of 19 and 4 cells/ml, respectively (P = 1.1 × 10−10). A receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis demonstrated an area under the ROC curve of 0.95, suggesting near-dichotomization of MI cases versus controls. We observed no correlation between CECs and typical markers of myocardial necrosis (ρ = 0.02, creatine kinase–myocardial band; ρ = −0.03, troponin). Morphological analysis of the microscopy images of CECs revealed a 2.5-fold increase (P < 0.0001) in cellular area and a twofold increase (P < 0.0001) in nuclear area of MI CECs versus healthy controls, age-matched CECs, as well as CECs obtained from patients with preexisting peripheral vascular disease. The distribution of CEC images that contained from 2 to 10 nuclei demonstrates that MI patients were the only subject group to contain more than 3 nuclei per image, indicating that multicellular and multinuclear clusters are specific for acute MI. These data indicate that CEC counts may serve as a promising clinical measure for the prediction of atherosclerotic plaque rupture events.

An Electronic Daily Diary Process Study of Stress and Health Behavior Triggers of Primary Headaches in Children

OBJECTIVE To determine through a daily process study whether alleged psychological and health behavior headache triggers reliably predict headache occurrence in children. METHODS Twenty-five children aged 8-17 years with primary headaches reported on their expectancies for headache triggers and then used electronic diaries three times daily for 2 weeks to record headache occurrence, stressors, type and timing of food and drink intake, sleep and wake times, and sleep quality. Hypotheses pertaining to the association of presumed headache triggers and headache occurrence were evaluated using multilevel models. RESULTS Only changes in stress level reliably preceded the occurrence of a new headache episode. Nights in which a child had less than his/her typical sleep quantity also tended to predict headache occurrence. Consumption of certain food and drink items was found to be protective. CONCLUSIONS Daily stressors seem to be a more reliable trigger of childrens headaches than diet or sleep factors.

Self-Reported Pain and Disease Symptoms Persist in Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis Despite Treatment Advances: An Electronic Diary Study

To use electronic diaries (e‐diaries) to determine whether pain, stiffness, and fatigue continue to be common, disabling symptoms in children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) despite the use of aggressive treatments in contemporary medical management.

Electronic Momentary Assessment of Weather Changes as a Trigger of Headaches in Children

(Headache 2010;50:779‐789)

A randomized, controlled trial of emotional disclosure in rheumatoid arthritis: Can clinician assistance enhance the effects?

&NA; Emotional disclosure by writing or talking about stressful life experiences improves health status in non‐clinical populations, but its success in clinical populations, particularly rheumatoid arthritis (RA), has been mixed. In this randomized, controlled trial, we attempted to increase the efficacy of emotional disclosure by having a trained clinician help patients emotionally disclose and process stressful experiences. We randomized 98 adults with RA to one of four conditions: (a) private verbal emotional disclosure; (b) clinician‐assisted verbal emotional disclosure; (c) arthritis information control (all of which engaged in four, 30‐min laboratory sessions); or (d) no‐treatment, standard care only control group. Outcome measures (pain, disability, affect, stress) were assessed at baseline, 2 months following treatment (2‐month follow‐up), and at 5‐month, and 15‐month follow‐ups. A manipulation check demonstrated that, as expected, both types of emotional disclosure led to immediate (post‐session) increases in negative affect compared with arthritis information. Outcome analyses at all three follow‐ups revealed no clear pattern of effects for either clinician‐assisted or private emotional disclosure compared with the two control groups. There were some benefits in terms of a reduction in pain behavior with private disclosure vs. clinician‐assisted disclosure at the 2‐month follow‐up, but no other significant between group differences. We conclude that verbal emotional disclosure about stressful experiences, whether conducted privately or assisted by a clinician, has little or no benefit for people with RA.

Latest developments in the assessment and management of chronic musculoskeletal pain syndromes in children

Purpose of reviewAs many as 25% of new patients in pediatric rheumatology clinics present with idiopathic chronic pain and recent data suggest the prevalence of these conditions is increasing. Knowledge of the latest developments in assessment and treatment is critical for providing optimal clinical care. This review summarizes advances published in the past year forwarding our understanding of chronic musculoskeletal pain syndromes in children. Recent findingsResearch has recently focused on the impairment associated with chronic pain syndromes in children, issues impacting the diagnosis of these conditions, and the efficacy of pharmacological and psychosocial treatments. No diagnostic criteria have been developed for specific chronic pain syndromes in children; however, data from several studies substantiate the need for thorough assessment of the child and family in multiple domains. In addition, studies have expanded both pharmacologic and psychosocial treatment options for children with these syndromes. SummaryDespite a growing body of research on chronic pain syndromes in children, there are no established standards of care. Data continues to support an interdisciplinary approach for effectively assessing and managing these conditions.

Pupillometry: a non-invasive technique for pain assessment in paediatric patients

Objective Pupillometry has been used to assess pain intensity and response to analgesic medications in adults. The aim of this observational study was to explore proof of concept for the use of this technique in paediatric patients. Changes in pupil parameters before and after opioid exposure also were evaluated. Design and setting This was a single-centre, prospective study conducted at an academic paediatric medical centre. Patients Children 9–17 years of age undergoing elective surgical correction of pectus excavatum were enrolled into a protocol approved by the human ethical committee (institutional review board). Interventions Pupil size and reactivity were measured using a handheld pupillometer. Pain was assessed using age-appropriate, validated pain self-report scales. Results Thirty patients were enrolled. Each point change on a 10 cm visual analogue pain intensity scale was associated with a statistically significant mean change of 0.11 mm/s in maximum pupil constriction velocity, and of approximately 0.4% in pupil diameter. As expected, there was an association between total opioid dose (expressed as morphine equivalents) and pupil diameter. Age, sex and baseline anxiety scores did not correlate significantly with pupillary response. Conclusions The association of maximum pupillary constriction velocity and diameter with pain scores illustrates the potential for using pupillometry as a non-invasive method to objectively quantitate pain response/intensity in children. The technique holds promise as a pharmacodynamic ‘tool’ to assess opioid response in paediatric patients.