Blum
Fakultäten » Medizinische Fakultät » Universitätsklinik Balgrist und Schweizerisches Paraplegikerzentrum » Paraplegikerzentrum » Prof. Dr. Armin Curt » Blum
Current research project
| Title / Titel | Objective assessement of changes in the neural pain pathways after spinal cord injury and their involvement in the development of neuropathic pain | ||
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| Abstract (PDF, 14 KB) | |||
| Summary / Zusammenfassung | The occurrence of neuropathic pain is common after spinal cord injury (SCI) occurring in at least 20% of all patients and significantly reduces their quality of life. Despite of this high clinical relevance and the lack of effective medical treatments research on neuropathic pain in SCI patients has been neglected so far and only recently accepted as a major clinical problem with neurophysiological origin. It has been suggested that plastic changes within the neuronal pain pathways, induced by damage to the STT, are involved in the development of neuropathic pain following SCI. The main objective of this project is therefore to assess and quantify the damage to the STT after SCI, as well as tracking the subsequent plastic changes that might occur both at the spinal and supraspinal level. Finally, those changes will be related to the development of neuropathic pain. New technical developments now allow investigating the integrity of the spinal pain pathways as well as the cortical processing of pain in vivo and non-invasively. By applying noxious contact heat stimulation to the skin, it is possible to activate the spinothalamic tract, mediating information about pain and temperature. As a consequence of the rapid heating ramp of the stimulus, a cortical evoked potential can be recorded at the scalp. Latency increases and amplitude reductions of these potentials are likely to indicate/quantify the damage to the STT. In addition, using 32 channel EEG, scalp topographies can be analysed and will give insights into the altered cortical pain processing in SCI patients with neuropathic pain. In summary, this project will considerably further our understanding of the neurophysiological alterations involved in the development of neuropathic pain after SCI and will hopefully result in a neurophysiological marker that both predicts and diagnoses neuropathic pain after SCI. |
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| Keywords / Suchbegriffe | Spinal Cord Injury, Neuropathic pain, spinothalamic tract, contact-heat, evoked potentials | ||
| Project leadership and contacts / Projektleitung und Kontakte |
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| Funding source(s) / Unterstützt durch |
SNF (Programm NFS/NCCR) |
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| Duration of Project / Projektdauer | Jan 2006 to May 2013 |