Fever, Body Weakness. Easy Fatigability, Pain, Headache, Weight loss, Dyspnea, Cough, Edema Flashcards
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an unpleasant sensation localized to a part of the body. It is often described in terms of a penetrating or tissue-destructive process (e.g., stabbing, burning, twisting, tearing, squeezing) and/or of a bodily or emotional reaction (e.g., terrifying, nauseating, sickening)
Pain
These properties illustrate the duality of pain
both sensation and emotion
Peripheral nerve consists of the
axons of three different types of neurons:
primary sensory afferents, motor neurons, and sympathetic postganglionic neurons
The cell bodies of primary sensory afferents
are located in
the dorsal root ganglia
within the vertebral foramina.
The largest diameter afferent fibers, respond maximally to light touch and/or moving stimuli; they are
present primarily in nerves that innervate the skin
A-beta (Aβ)
These fibers are present in nerves to the
skin and to deep somatic and visceral
A-delta (Aδ) and the unmyelinated (C) axons
primary afferent nociceptors (pain receptors)
Innervated only by Aδ and C fiber afferents
Cornea
When intense, repeated, or prolonged stimuli are applied to damaged or inflamed tissues, the threshold for activating primary afferent nociceptors is lowered, and the frequency of firing is higher for
all stimulus intensities
Sensitization
Sensitization occurs at the level of the
peripheral nerve terminal (peripheral sensitization) as well as at the level of the dorsal horn of the spinal cord (central sensitization).
occurs in damaged or inflamed tissues,
when inflammatory mediators activate intracellular signal transduction in nociceptors, prompting an increase in the production, transport, and membrane insertion of chemically gated and voltage-gated ion channels.
These changes increase the excitability of nociceptor
terminals and lower their threshold for activation by mechanical, thermal, and chemical stimuli
Peripheral sensitization
occurs when activity, generated by nociceptors during inflammation, enhances the excitability of nerve cells in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord
Central sensitization
Following injury and resultant sensitization, normally innocuous stimuli can produce pain
Allodynia
increased pain intensity in response to the same noxious stimulus
hyperalgesia
play a significant role in sensitization
Low pH, prostaglandins, leukotrienes
inflammatory mediators such as bradykinin
is released from primary afferent nociceptors and
has multiple biologic activities. It is a potent vasodilator, degranulates mast cells, is a chemoattractant for leukocytes, and increases the production
and release of inflammatory mediators
Substance P
When primary afferents are activated by noxious stimuli, they release neurotransmitters from their terminals that excite the spinal cord neurons. The major
neurotransmitter released is
glutamate
The convergence of sensory inputs to a single spinal pain-transmission neuron is of great importance because it underlies the phenomenon of
referred pain
Inflammation near the central diaphragm
is often reported as
shoulder discomfort.
This spatial displacement of
pain sensation from the site of the injury that produces it is known as
referred pain
causes vasodilation and neurogenic edema with further accumulation of bradykinin (BK).
also causes the release of histamine
(H) from mast cells and serotonin (5HT) from platelets
Substance P
pathway is crucial for pain sensation in humans
The spinothalamic
This projection mediates the purely sensory aspects of pain, i.e., its location, intensity, and quality
somatosensory cortex.
According to this hypothesis, visceral afferent nociceptors converge on the same pain-projection neurons as the afferents from the somatic structures in which the pain is perceived. The brain has no way of knowing the actual source of input and mistakenly “projects” the sensation to the somatic structure
convergence-projection hypothesis of referred
pain
The suggestion that pain will worsen following administration of an inert substance can increase its perceived intensity
(the nocebo effect)