title: Role of intracellular calcium ions in the physiopathology of fibromyalgia syndrome.
abstract: Calcium ions have a key role in the physiology of muscular contraction: changes in calcium ion concentration may be involved in the pathogenesis of fibromyalgia. Although, since the plasmatic level of calcium in fibromyalgia patients is always in the normal range, it seemed interesting to evaluate the intracellular calcium concentration. The study was carried out on two groups of subjects: 70 affected by fibromyalgia and 40 healthy controls. The results obtained show that in fibromyalgia patients the intracellular calcium concentration is significantly reduced in comparison to that of healthy controls: the reduced intracellular calcium concentration seems to be a peculiar characteristic of fibromyalgia patients and may be potentially responsible for muscular hypertonus. The effective role of this anomaly in the physiopathology of fibromyalgia and the potential role of drugs active on the calcium homeostasis are still to be confirmed.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Rheumatology, University of Siena, Policlinico Le Scotte, Viale Bracci 1, I-53100 Siena.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Magaldi
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Moltoni
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Biasi
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Marcolongo
mesh_terms: D002118:Calcium / Q000378:metabolism*; D005356:Fibromyalgia / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000209:etiology / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans
chemical_list: D002118:Calcium