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Special Issue "Musculoskeletal and Neuropathic Pain in COVID-19: Diagnosis and Management Challenge"

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A special issue of Diagnostics (ISSN 2075-4418). This special issue belongs to the section "Point-of-Care Diagnostics and Devices".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2023) | Viewed by 4808

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. César Fernández De Las Peñas

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Guest Editor

Department of Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Rehabilitation and Physical Medicine, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, 28922 Alcorcón, Madrid, Spain
Interests: chronic pain; pain neuroscience education, manual therapy; central nervous system sensitization
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Lidiane Lima Florencio

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Guest Editor

Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Department, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, 28933 Móstoles, Madrid, Spain
Interests: pain assessment; headache; temporomandibular disorders; neck pain; electromyography; measurement properties; musculoskeletal disorders; physiotherapy interventions
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The SARS-CoV-2 infection responsible for COVID-19 has spread rapidly across the world in the most unprecedented sanitary outbreak of recent history. Chronic pain is another sanitary crisis that has been present for several decades. Current data suggest a post-COVID pandemic, i.e., the presence of long COVID. Long COVID can be briefly defined as the presence of symptoms in individuals who have recovered from COVID-19. Pain is one of these symptoms and can be experienced by almost 50% of COVID-19 survivors during the first year after the infection. Proper classification of post-COVID pain is crucial for proper identification and management. The current literature shows that individuals with pain symptoms before the infection experienced an exacerbation of their symptoms. Additionally, several patients have also experienced the presence of new pain symptoms as a consequence of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Several gaps in the proper definition, identification, mechanisms, and treatment strategies for the management of post-COVID pain symptoms exist.

We are pleased to invite you to submit your article to this Special Issue titled “Musculoskeletal and Neuropathic Pain in COVID-19: Diagnosis and Management Challenge”. This Special Issue aims to define, classify, understand, and suggest treatments for post-COVID pain symptoms by focusing on potential aspects of pain as a sequela of COVID-19. We invite researchers/clinicians to submit original articles, cohort studies, case–control studies, systematic reviews, narrative reviews, or meta-analyses related to the proper identification or management of post-COVID pain symptoms to this Special Issue. Papers can be related, but not limited, to the following topics:

Epidemiology of pain symptoms during the COVID-19 acute phase;
Studies addressing treatment interventions of pain during the COVID-19 acute phase;
Epidemiology on post-COVID pain symptoms;
Characterization studies on pain associated with COVID-19;
Identification of risk factors associated with post-COVID pain symptoms;
Clinical trials evaluating treatment interventions for the management of post-COVID pain;
Evaluation of psychological status of patients with chronic pain in relation to COVID-19 outbreak;
Definition or consensus studies on post-COVID pain symptomatology;
Genetic and epigenetic studies associated with pain symptoms and COVID-19;
Validation of pain questionnaires in COVID-19 populations.

Prof. Dr. César Fernández De Las Peñas
Prof. Dr. Lidiane Lima Florencio
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Diagnostics is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

COVID-19
long-COVID
pain
musculoskeletal
neuropathic
sensitization
mechanism

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Open AccessArticle

Association of Kinesiophobia with Catastrophism and Sensitization-Associated Symptoms in COVID-19 Survivors with Post-COVID Pain

Manuel Herrero-Montes

César Fernández-de-las-Peñas

Diego Ferrer-Pargada

Sheila Izquierdo-Cuervo

Beatriz Abascal-Bolado

Juan Antonio Valera-Calero

and

Paula Paras-Bravo

Diagnostics 2023, 13(5), 847; https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics13050847 - 23 Feb 2023

Viewed by 1048

Abstract

Pain symptoms after the acute phase of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) are present in almost 50% of COVID-19 survivors. The presence of kinesiophobia is a risk factor which may promote and perpetuate pain. This study aimed to investigate variables associated with the presence of kinesiophobia in a sample of previously hospitalized COVID-19 survivors exhibiting post-COVID pain. An observational study was conducted in three urban hospitals in Spain, including one hundred and forty-six COVID-19 survivors with post-COVID pain. Demographic (age, weight, height), clinical (intensity and duration of pain), psychological (anxiety level, depressive level, sleep quality), cognitive (catastrophizing), sensitization-associated symptoms, and health-related quality of life variables were collected in 146 survivors with post-COVID pain, as well as whether they exhibited kinesiophobia. Stepwise multiple linear regression models were conducted to identify variables significantly associated with kinesiophobia. Patients were assessed a mean of 18.8 (SD 1.8) months after hospital discharge. Kinesiophobia levels were positively associated with anxiety levels (r: 0.356, p < 0.001), depression levels (r: 0.306, p < 0.001), sleep quality (r: 0.288, p < 0.001), catastrophism (r: 0.578, p < 0.001), and sensitization-associated symptoms (r: 0.450, p < 0.001). The stepwise regression analysis revealed that 38.1% of kinesiophobia variance was explained by catastrophism (r² adj: 0.329, B = 0.416, t = 8.377, p < 0.001) and sensitization-associated symptoms (r² adj: 0.381, B = 0.130, t = 3.585, p < 0.001). Kinesiophobia levels were associated with catastrophism and sensitization-associated symptoms in previously hospitalized COVID-19 survivors with post-COVID pain. Identification of patients at a higher risk of developing a higher level of kinesiophobia, associated with post-COVID pain symptoms, could lead to better therapeutic strategies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Musculoskeletal and Neuropathic Pain in COVID-19: Diagnosis and Management Challenge)

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Open AccessArticle

Understanding Sensitization, Cognitive and Neuropathic Associated Mechanisms behind Post-COVID Pain: A Network Analysis

César Fernández-de-las-Peñas

Manuel Herrero-Montes

Ignacio Cancela-Cilleruelo

Jorge Rodríguez-Jiménez

Paula Parás-Bravo

Umut Varol

Pablo del-Valle-Loarte

Gema Flox-Benítez

Lars Arendt-Nielsen

and

Juan A. Valera-Calero

Diagnostics 2022, 12(7), 1538; https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics12071538 - 24 Jun 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1363

Abstract

This study aimed to describe a network including demographic, sensory-related, psychological/cognitive and other variables in individuals with post-COVID pain after hospitalization. Demographic (i.e., age, height, weight, months with symptoms), sensory-related (Central Sensitization Inventory -CSI-, Self-Report Leeds Assessment of Neuropathic Symptoms -S-LANSS-, PainDETECT), psychological/cognitive (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale -HADS-A/HADS-D-, Pain Catastrophizing Scale -PCS-, Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia -TSK-11-) and other (sleep quality and health-related quality of life -EQ/5D/5L) variables were collected in 146 COVID-19 survivors with post-COVID pain. A network analysis was conducted to quantify the adjusted correlations between the modelled variables, and to assess their centrality indices (i.e., the connectivity with other symptoms in the network and the importance in the system modelled as network). The network revealed associations between sensory-related and psychological/cognitive variables. PainDETECT was associated with S-LANSS (

ρ

: 0.388) and CSI (

ρ

: 0.207). Further, CSI was associated with HADS-A (

ρ

: 0.269), TSK-11 (

ρ

: 0.165) and female gender (

ρ

: 0.413). As expected, HADS-A was associated with HADS-D (

ρ

: 0.598) and TSK-11 with PCS (

ρ

: 0.405). The only negative association was between sleep quality and EQ-5D-5L (

ρ

: −0.162). Gender was the node showing the highest strength, closeness, and betweenness centralities. In addition, CSI was the node with the second highest closeness and betweenness centralities, whereas HADS-D was the node with the second highest strength centrality. This is the first study applying a network analysis for phenotyping post-COVID pain. Our findings support a model where sensitization-associated symptoms, neuropathic phenotype, and psychological aspects are connected, reflecting post-COVID pain as a nociplastic pain condition. In addition, post-COVID pain is gender dependent since female sex plays a relevant role. Clinical implications of current findings, e.g., developing treatments targeting these mechanisms, are discussed. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Musculoskeletal and Neuropathic Pain in COVID-19: Diagnosis and Management Challenge)

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Open AccessSystematic Review

Post-Acute COVID-19 Joint Pain and New Onset of Rheumatic Musculoskeletal Diseases: A Systematic Review

and

Diagnostics 2023, 13(11), 1850; https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics13111850 - 25 May 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1704

Abstract

As the number of reports of post-acute COVID-19 musculoskeletal manifestations is rapidly rising, it is important to summarize the current available literature in order to shed light on this new and not fully understood phenomenon. Therefore, we conducted a systematic review to provide an updated picture of post-acute COVID-19 musculoskeletal manifestations of potential rheumatological interest, with a particular focus on joint pain, new onset of rheumatic musculoskeletal diseases and presence of autoantibodies related to inflammatory arthritis such as rheumatoid factor and anti-citrullinated protein antibodies. We included 54 original papers in our systematic review. The prevalence of arthralgia was found to range from 2% to 65% within a time frame varying from 4 weeks to 12 months after acute SARS-CoV-2 infection. Inflammatory arthritis was also reported with various clinical phenotypes such as symmetrical polyarthritis with RA-like pattern similar to other prototypical viral arthritis, polymyalgia-like symptoms, or acute monoarthritis and oligoarthritis of large joints resembling reactive arthritis. Moreover, high figures of post-COVID-19 patients fulfilling the classification criteria for fibromyalgia were found, ranging from 31% to 40%. Finally, the available literature about prevalence of rheumatoid factor and anti-citrullinated protein antibodies was largely inconsistent. In conclusion, manifestations of rheumatological interest such as joint pain, new-onset inflammatory arthritis and fibromyalgia are frequently reported after COVID-19, highlighting the potential role of SARS-CoV-2 as a trigger for the development of autoimmune conditions and rheumatic musculoskeletal diseases. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Musculoskeletal and Neuropathic Pain in COVID-19: Diagnosis and Management Challenge)

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Special Issue "Musculoskeletal and Neuropathic Pain in COVID-19: Diagnosis and Management Challenge"

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