Disease relevance of Low Back Pain

• Epidural steroid injections for low back pain and lumbosacral radiculopathy [1].
• METHODS: Patients with fibromyalgia, chronic low back pain (CLBP), and ankylosing spondylitis who were referred to a specialist and participated in three randomised trials completed a cost diary for the duration of the study, comprising direct medical and non-medical resource utilisation and inability to perform paid and unpaid work [2].
• Significantly increased basal cortisol levels were found in cluster headache patients in both illness phases (p < 0.0001), but not in low back pain patients [3].
• On the contrary, the ACTH surge after insulin induced hypoglycemia was significantly increased in the low back pain patient group (p = 0.02) [3].
• This is a case report of a 44-year-old man with a chordoma of the clivus that caused dysphonia, low back pain, and urinary and fecal incontinence [4].

Psychiatry related information on Low Back Pain

• Increased physical activity was significantly associated with a history of low back pain (p = 0.03), and increased back flexor strength was significantly associated with a history of low back pain and of low back pain in the past year (p = 0.03 and 0.008, respectively) [5].
• CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate that dietary caffeine consumption is not related to the global experience of pain and disability in patients with chronic low back pain, although high caffeine use may be embedded in a context of other unhealthy life-style behaviors [6].
• The impact of untreated anxiety disorders and major depressive disorder on functioning was comparable to, or greater than, the effects of medical conditions such as low back pain, arthritis, diabetes and heart disease [7].
• Assessment of efficacy and psychomotor performances of thiocolchicoside and tizanidine in patients with acute low back pain [8].
• MEAP and systemic pain thresholds were inversely correlated in low back pain subjects [9].

High impact information on Low Back Pain

• We conclude that injecting methylprednisolone acetate into the facet joints is of little value in the treatment of patients with chronic low back pain [10].
• Fads in the treatment of low back pain [11].
• Substance P: a neuropeptide involved in low back pain [12]?
• 99M Tc stannous pyrophosphate bone scanning with quantitative sacroiliac scintigraphy (Q.S.S.) has been used in 50 females with low backache and in 66 symptomless female controls [13].
• RESULTS: OA was reported by 71% of the patients, 55% reported low back pain, and 19% reported RA [14].

Chemical compound and disease context of Low Back Pain

• The second study compared three weeks of treatment with daily doses of 200 mg of flurbiprofen and 4 g of acetaminophen in 50 patients with acute low back pain [15].
• Of 27 subjects evaluated 1 to 4 years after treatment, 8/16 who had received dexamethasone were asymptomatic or had only occasional mild low-back pain, compared with 7/11 who had received placebo [16].
• The purpose of the study was to assess the efficacy of epidural steroid injections for low-back pain [17].
• Tramadol SR 100 mg capsules administered twice daily had equivalent efficacy to tramadol IR 50 mg capsules administered four times daily in the treatment of moderate to severe chronic low back pain in a well designed study [18].
• Twenty patients with chronic low back pain received 12 lumbar sympathetic injections, in a series of 6 with bupivacaine and a series of 6 with saline [19].

Biological context of Low Back Pain

• Low back pain is a significant public health problem and one of the most commonly reported reasons for the use of Complementary Alternative Medicine. A randomized control trial was conducted in subjects with non-specific chronic low back pain comparing Iyengar yoga therapy to an educational control group [20].
• Diurnal rhythm of serum melatonin concentrations was estimated in 12 men with low back pain syndrome before and after exposure to a very low-frequency magnetic field (2.9 mT, 40 Hz, square wave, bipolar) [21].
• Sex differences were observed in the cortisol response to the symptoms of chronic low back pain, especially in the presence of anxiety and somatization [22].
• P300 event-related potentials were recorded in 12 patients with chronic low back pain following epidural methylprednisolone administration [23].
• Event-related evoked potential responses (P300) following epidural methylprednisolone therapy in chronic low back pain patients [23].

Anatomical context of Low Back Pain

• CONCLUSION: Selective nerve root blocks with betamethasone and triamcinolone reduced low back pain and lower extremity pain, although there was no significant difference in effectiveness between the two [24].
• Demographic, clinical and psychological characteristics of 92 patients with low back pain were correlated with prolactin and cortisol levels in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) [25].
• Forty-three consecutive patients with chronic low back pain maximal below L5-S1 were investigated with sacroiliac joint blocks under image intensifier using radiographic contrast followed by 2% lignocaine [26].
• CONCLUSIONS: Endurance training of paraspinal and abdominal muscles may be useful in preventing low back pain associated with lateral bend loading [27].
• METHODS: After percutaneous application of tantalum indicators for roentgen stereophotogrammetric technique, the intervertebral translations of the spondylolytic fifth lumbar vertebra were measured in eight adult patients with low back pain and low-grade olisthesis [28].

Gene context of Low Back Pain

• Fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, and low back pain patients present a hyperprolactinemic response to thyrotropin-releasing hormone [29].
• We have compared the levels of production of interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-8 (IL-8) and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) in disc tissue from patients undergoing discectomy for sciatica (63) with that from patients undergoing fusion for discogenic low back pain (20) using an enzyme-linked immunoabsorbent assay [30].
• It is currently approved with additional indications (i.e., for relief of acute pain associated with dental surgery, for primary dysmenorrhoea and for chronic musculo-skeletal pain, including chronic lower-back pain) in Mexico, Brazil and Peru. Etoricoxib has an in vitro COX1/COX2 IC(50) ratio of 344, the highest of any coxib [31].
• Erythropoietin may be a potential therapeutic factor for patients with low back pain by providing pain relief and neuroprotection [32].
• We analyzed the fibrinolytic system in patients with chronic low back pain using a venous occlusion test to stimulate fibrinolysis, and we subsequently determined the levels of tissue plasminogen activator (TPA) and fast-acting inhibitor of TPA (PAI) [33].

Analytical, diagnostic and therapeutic context of Low Back Pain

• In a double-blind study, 67 chronic low back pain patients received 4 lumbar sympathetic nerve blocks, two given with bupivacaine and two given with saline [34].
• A 43-year-old woman was given an epidural injection of steroid mixed with local anaesthetic, under general anaesthesia, for treatment of low back pain [35].
• BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to determine whether low power laser therapy (Gallium-Arsenide) is useful or not for the therapy of chronic low back pain (LBP) [36].
• We conclude that haemagglutination is subject to false positive reactions and that the incidence of anticollagen antibodies in sera from patients with rheumatoid arthritis or chronic low back pain is low [37].
• Functional symmetry of the trunk in the coronal and transverse planes can be used to assess the progress of rehabilitation programs of non-specific low back pain subjects.RelevanceRehabilitation programs focus on the progress of directly measured trunk kinematics, which do not always exhibit monotonic behavior [38].

References