PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Patient born with insensitivity to pain acquires neuropathic pain following childbirth

2015-08-24
(Press-News.org) The report, published on F1000Research and titled Neuropathic pain in a patient with congenital insensitivity to pain has just passed peer review. It concerns a unique case of a woman with Channelopathy-associated Insensitivity to Pain (CIP) Syndrome, who developed features of neuropathic pain after sustaining pelvic fractures and an epidural hematoma that impinged on the right fifth lumbar (L5) nerve root. These injuries were sustained during a painless labour, which culminated in a Caesarean section.

The patient had been diagnosed with CIP as child. This was later confirmed by tests showing bi-allelic mutations in the gene that codes for the voltage-gated sodium channel Nav1.7, a protein considered necessary for the sensation of pain. Testing two months after childbirth showed that her ability to sense mechanical stimulation of her feet had increased more than 10-fold compared with tests performed before her pregnancy. However, the authors note that the value of verbal descriptors is somewhat limited in a person who has never felt pain before.

She now suffers from continuous, unpleasant, buzzing sensations and electric shocks in her legs and a vice-like squeezing in the pelvis when she walks. Even though she has not reported sharp, stabbing or burning sensations, her symptoms fall under the International Association for the Study of Pain definition of pain, and she frequently used terms such as 'hurt', 'cramp' and 'aching'.

Professor Woods and his colleagues state: "The Nav1.7 channel plays a crucial role in pain transmission; however, this case shows that neuropathic pain can be initiated and maintained in its absence in humans, as well as in knockout mice. Our data provides a further basis for seeking specific molecular substrates for neuropathic pain, some of which could act as mechanistic targets for new therapies for patients with such symptoms."

This case shows that, contrary to popular belief, pain (or at least a form of it) can be induced in humans without Nav1.7 channels. This finding raises the possibility that pain-killers developed to target this channel may only be able to relieve certain aspects of neuropathic pain.

Rebecca Lawrence, Managing Director of F1000Research, said: "This fascinating case report represents important work in the field of pain transmission and ultimately, management. Through F1000Research, the authors have been able to share their findings immediately, and with the widest audience."

INFORMATION:

For more information:

Catherine McNulty or Andrew Baud, Tala (on behalf of F1000 Research), +44 (0) 20 3397 3383 or +44 (0) 7775 715775

About F1000Research

F1000Research is an open science publishing platform for life scientists that offers immediate publication and transparent peer review, avoiding editorial bias and ensuring the inclusion of all source data. This process helps scientists to avoid the traditional, anonymous, pre-publication peer-review process that can cause long delays before new results become visible. All articles must pass an initial in-house quality check prior to publication on F1000Research. Following open, invited peer review where the referee's name and affiliation and the referee reports are published alongside the article, authors can make revisions that are then published as new article versions. Since its launch in January 2013, F1000Research has published more than 900 articles across the life sciences, written by more than 3,000 authors. For more details on F1000Research go to http://www.f1000research.com

About Cambridge University Hospitals (CUH)

Cambridge University Hospitals (CUH) is one of the largest and best known hospitals in the country. As well as delivering care through Addenbrooke's and the Rosie, it is also: a leading national centre for specialist treatment for rare or complex conditions a government-designated biomedical research centre one of only five academic health science centres in the UK a university teaching hospital with a worldwide reputation a partner in the development of the Cambridge Biomedical Campus

CUH's vision is to be one of the best academic healthcare organisations in the world.

For further information, please contact Adrian Ient, Senior Media Relations Manager Communications Department, Cambridge University Hospitals, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 0QQ Tel: 01223 274433 Email: adrian.ient@addenbrookes.nhs.uk



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Children's hospitals shift from CT scans for common childhood health problems

2015-08-24
CINCINNATI - A study published online Aug. 24 by the journal Pediatrics finds a significant decrease in the use of computed tomography (CT) scans at children's hospitals for 10 common childhood diagnoses including seizure, concussion, appendectomy and upper respiratory tract infection. Alternate types of imaging such as ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are being used more frequently for eight of the 10 diagnoses. Study authors hypothesize the decline in CT usage may be attributable to a growing body of evidence linking ionizing radiation from CT scans to ...

Crying has its perks

2015-08-24
Yes, a good cry indeed might go a long way to make you feel better, says Asmir Gračanin of the University of Tilburg in the Netherlands, lead author of a study in Springer's journal Motivation and Emotion. These findings were established after a research team videotaped a group of participants while watching the emotionally charged films La vita è bella and Hachi: A Dog's Tale. Afterwards, the participants were asked a few times to reflect on how they felt. Although humans are the only species able to shed emotional tears, little is known about the function ...

Self-healing landscape: Landslides after earthquakes

2015-08-24
21.08.2015: In mountainous regions earthquakes often cause strong landslides, which can be exacerbated by heavy rain. However, after an initial increase, the frequency of these mass wasting events, often enormous and dangerous, declines, in fact independently of meteorological events and aftershocks. These new findings are presented by a German-Franco-Japanese team of geoscientists in the current issue of the journal Geology, under the lead of the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences. Even after strong earthquake the activity of landslides returns back over the course ...

Smooth robot movements reduce energy consumption by up to 40 percent

Smooth robot movements reduce energy consumption by up to 40 percent
2015-08-24
By minimizing the acceleration of industrial robots, energy consumption can be reduced by up to 40 percent - while retaining the given production time. This is the result of a new optimization algorithm that was developed by researchers at Chalmers University of Technology. Optimization of the robot's movements reduces acceleration and deceleration, as well as the time the robot is at a standstill since being at a standstill also consumes energy. "We simply let the robot move slower instead of waiting for other robots and machines to catch up before carrying out the ...

Blacks hit hardest by public-sector job losses during recession, study finds

2015-08-24
The public sector has long served as an equalizer in American society, a place where minority workers could find stable employment that offered advancement and a reliable path to a middle-class life. But the Great Recession wiped out many of those jobs, as tax revenues declined and anti-government sentiment added to a contraction that continued long after the Great Recession ended in 2008. Those job cuts disproportionately hurt African-American workers and increased racial disparity in the public sector, a new study by University of Washington sociologist Jennifer Laird ...

Researcher documents gender, class bias in enforcement of quarantine law

2015-08-24
CHICAGO -- As the World War I military draft brought to the forefront the high rate of venereal disease among the civilian population, states began to enact measures to quarantine people and begin forms of treatment to try to control syphilis, gonorrhea and other potential outbreaks. However, a University of Kansas (KU) researcher has documented examples of how this process continued well into peacetime and how these laws were generally enforced along lines of gender and class, especially punishing poor women. Nicole Perry, a University of Kansas graduate student in ...

Unlike boys, girls lose friends for having sex, gain friends for making out

2015-08-24
CHICAGO -- Early adolescent girls lose friends for having sex and gain friends for "making out," while their male peers lose friends for "making out" and gain friends for having sex, finds a new study that will be presented at the 110th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association (ASA). "In our sample of early adolescents, girls' friendship networks shrink significantly after they have sex, whereas boys' friendship networks expand significantly," said Derek A. Kreager, the lead author of the study and an associate professor of sociology and criminology at ...

Lightness/darkness of skin affects male immigrants' likelihood of gaining employment

2015-08-24
CHICAGO -- Skin color is a significant factor in the probability of employment for male immigrants to the United States, according to a new study by two University of Kansas (KU) researchers. The researchers, Andrea Gomez Cervantes, a doctoral candidate in sociology, and ChangHwan Kim, an associate professor of sociology, found that among men, darker skin color negatively influenced their likelihood of employment, even after accounting for the effects of race and other demographic and education related variables. The negative effect of darker skin color was particularly ...

Heart medications that target stress may help prolong survival in women with ovarian cancer

2015-08-24
A new analysis of patient records indicates that certain drugs taken to improve heart health may also have anti-cancer properties. Published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the findings indicate that additional studies are warranted to determine whether patients with cancer may benefit from adding beta blockers to their treatment regimen. There is growing evidence that stress hormones can stimulate cancer to grow and spread. Beta blockers, which are drugs commonly used to treat hypertension and other heart-related conditions, ...

One in 5 over-65s who drink alcohol do so at unsafe levels

2015-08-24
One in five older people who drink alcohol are consuming it at unsafe levels - over 21 units of alcohol for men and 14 units for women each week - according to a study by King's College London. The research in inner-city London, published in BMJ Open, found these unsafe older drinkers are more likely to be of higher socioeconomic status. The researchers used anonymised electronic GP health records for 27,991 people aged 65 and over in the Borough of Lambeth in London. From these records, they identified 9,248 older people who had reported consuming alcohol and of these ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Are lifetimes of big appliances really shrinking?

Pink skies

Monkeys are world’s best yodellers - new research

Key differences between visual- and memory-led Alzheimer’s discovered

% weight loss targets in obesity management – is this the wrong objective?

An app can change how you see yourself at work

NYC speed cameras take six months to change driver behavior, effects vary by neighborhood, new study reveals

New research shows that propaganda is on the rise in China

Even the richest Americans face shorter lifespans than their European counterparts, study finds

Novel genes linked to rare childhood diarrhea

New computer model reveals how Bronze Age Scandinavians could have crossed the sea

Novel point-of-care technology delivers accurate HIV results in minutes

Researchers reveal key brain differences to explain why Ritalin helps improve focus in some more than others

Study finds nearly five-fold increase in hospitalizations for common cause of stroke

Study reveals how alcohol abuse damages cognition

Medicinal cannabis is linked to long-term benefits in health-related quality of life

Microplastics detected in cat placentas and fetuses during early pregnancy

Ancient amphibians as big as alligators died in mass mortality event in Triassic Wyoming

Scientists uncover the first clear evidence of air sacs in the fossilized bones of alvarezsaurian dinosaurs: the "hollow bones" which help modern day birds to fly

Alcohol makes male flies sexy

TB patients globally often incur "catastrophic costs" of up to $11,329 USD, despite many countries offering free treatment, with predominant drivers of cost being hospitalization and loss of income

Study links teen girls’ screen time to sleep disruptions and depression

Scientists unveil starfish-inspired wearable tech for heart monitoring

Footprints reveal prehistoric Scottish lagoons were stomping grounds for giant Jurassic dinosaurs

AI effectively predicts dementia risk in American Indian/Alaska Native elders

First guideline on newborn screening for cystic fibrosis calls for changes in practice to improve outcomes

Existing international law can help secure peace and security in outer space, study shows

Pinning down the process of West Nile virus transmission

UTA-backed research tackles health challenges across ages

In pancreatic cancer, a race against time

[Press-News.org] Patient born with insensitivity to pain acquires neuropathic pain following childbirth