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Biomedical subjects

S A Andersson

Publications and source records attributed to S A Andersson.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

Relations between experimentally induced tooth pain threshold changes, psychometrics and clinical pain relief following TENS. A retrospective study in patients with long-lasting pain.

The present study investigates the relationships between clinical pain relief, physiological and psychological parameters. Out of 50 patients with long-lasting musculoskeletal neck- and shoulder-pain treated with transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS), 21 were selected and classified as responders (n = 13) or non-responders (n = 8). Tooth pain thresholds (PT) were measured before and after an experimental TENS treatment and the relative change in PT following the stimulation was calculated. Three psychometric self-inventories were administered: Zung Depression Scale, Spielberger's Trait Anxiety Scale and the Multidimensional Health Locus of Control Scale. Responders (R) and non-responders (NR) differed significantly from each other in the PT measurements as well as on the psychometric scales. NR exhibited higher levels of anxiety and depression, a more pronounced powerful other orientation and no change or a decrease in PT following TENS compared to R. These findings indicate relationships and interactions between physiological and psychological factors in patients with long-lasting pain.

Adult

Canine hip dysplasia: study of heritability in 401 litters of German Shepherd dogs.

Heritability of hip dysplasia was estimated to be about 0.4 to 0.5 when based on the radiographic evaluations of the hip joints of 2,404 German Shepherd Dogs born at The Armed Forces Dog Training Center in Sweden. The material included all dogs in 401 litters born at the Center from 1965 through 1973 that reached the age of 15 months. To be expected with such high heritability, frequency of hip dysplasia in the offspring was shown to be affected by the hip joint status of sire and dam as well as by the hip joint status of their parents and littermates. Even matings between sires with normal hip joints and dams with only slight dysplasia resulted in significantly higher frequency of hip dysplasia in the offspring, when compared with the frequency if both sires and dams had normal hip joints. Frequency of hip dysplasia in the progeny of sires with normal hip joints varied greatly. Since 1973, selection of the breeding stock has been based on hip joint status (phenotype) of the breeding animals and of their relatives as well as on what had become known about frequency of hip dysplasia in the litters already born (progeny testing). In this way, frequency of hip dysplasia in 347 dogs born at the Center during 1975 was lowered to 28%. This figure should be compared with the figure of 50%, which represents the frequency of hip dysplasia in the kennel up to 1970, when selection was not as strict as could be expected in a well-controlled kennel.

Animals

Evaluation of the pain suppressive effect of different frequencies of peripheral electrical stimulation in chronic pain conditions.

The pain suppressive effect of low (2/s) and high (50-100/s) frequency electrical stimulation was studied in 12 patients with severe chronic pain in the back and/or the legs. All patients were subjected to a thorough physical examination before and 2-3 weeks after a series of stimulation sessions. The stimulation was applied via surface electrodes to areas both segmentally related and segmentally unrelated to the regions of chronic pain. Low frequency stimulation induced a partial pain relief in only one patient whereas stimulation with high frequency gave a suppression of pain in seven patients. The effect was short-lasting in most cases and the pain started to increase usually within 30 min. It is concluded that the observed pain suppression is not due to psychological factors but to more basic neurophysiological mechanisms. Augmentation of the effect after repeated stimulation sessions was not observed, neither was there any alteration in the neuro-orthopedic status nor any lasting pain relief in any patient.

Adult

Cerebral units activated by tactile stimuli via a ventral spinal pathway in monkeys.

Extracellular microelectrode recordings were made in the forelimb and/or hindlimb areas of the cerebral post-central gyri of 7 monkeys before and/or after acute dorsal hemisections of the cervical or low thoracic spinal cord. The animals were anaesthetized with either pentobarbitone sodium or chloralose. Among the units which were encountered after the lesions were 114 which could be influenced from the periphery. 38 units discharged to light tactile stimulation of small receptive fields and had a topographical organization like that observed in the intact animal. The remaining 76 units could be activated by peripheral electrical stimulation and/or by tapping, squeezing or light pinching. No units were found which specifically were activated by noxious stimuli. The two groups of cortical units responded with latencies only slightly longer than those obtained in the intact preparation. In the light of previous findings these electrophysiological data suggest that, unlike carnivora, primates may possess the ventral spinal somatosensory pathway traditionally postulated on the basis of neurological material.

Animals

On acupuncture analgesia and the mechanism of pain.

The effect on the experimental tooth pain threshold of conditioning electrical stimulation via needles or surface electrodes applied to the hands and cheeks was studied in 34 dental students. Conditioning stimulation with 2/sec. gave a slowly increasing pain threshold followed by a slow return to the control level in the post-conditioning period. In each individual the amplitude of the threshold increase was reproduceable. It was concluded that these effects are not due to motivational but to more basic neurophysiological mechanisms. The pain threshold was increased mainly by segmental conditioning stimulation; segmentally unrelated stimulation gave usually only small effects. Conditioning stimulation with 100/sec. produced only a strict segmental short-lasting effect. Effects with characteristics of both 2/sec. and 100/sec. were obtained by conditioning at 10/sec. It is suggested that the transmission of impulses from the pain afferents to ascending pathways is controlled at the segmental level by (a) presynaptic inhibition within the group of afferents giving rise to the flexion reflex of which the pain afferents are assumed to be a part; (b) postsynaptic inhibition between alternate pathway excited by flexion reflex afferents; and (c) descending control from supraspinal systems which may utilize similar segmental mechanisms as the primary afferents.

Acupuncture Therapy