title: Pain biomarkers.
abstract: The value of biomarkers in aiding early diagnosis of disease and predicting response to pharmacologic interventions is well known. The idea that biomarkers may also be used to identify and quantify pain has been investigated in preclinical and clinical studies. Findings from a preclinical study show that inflammatory pain and neuropathic pain have different biomarkers. Further investigations provided mixed results, on the one hand, cystatin C levels in cerebrospinal fluid appear to be a predictive marker for postherpetic neuralgia in patients with varicella-zoster virus, and a pain marker in women experiencing labour pain, but is not correlated with pain duration or intensity. Investigations into potential biomarkers for chest pain showed that cardiac markers used to aid in diagnosis and prognosis of cardiac disease correlate with tissue damage rather than with pain. Further studies are needed to gain insights into biomarkers for pain to enhance pain management practices.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anaesthesia and Resuscitation, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy.
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Marchi
authors.forename: Renato
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Vellucci
authors.forename: Sergio
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mameli
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rita Piredda
authors.forename: Gabriele
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Finco
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000378:metabolism*; D002637:Chest Pain / Q000378:metabolism; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D048949:Labor Pain / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid; D008954:Models, Biological; D010146:Pain / Q000175:diagnosis*; D010523:Peripheral Nervous System Diseases / Q000378:metabolism; D011247:Pregnancy
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers