Mental Pain Questionnaire: An item response theory analysis.

BACKGROUND: The Mental Pain Questionnaire (MPQ) is a self-report questionnaire developed to assess mental pain. The aim of the present study was to test the clinimetric properties of the MPQ. METHODS: A sample of 200 migraine outpatients were enrolled; homogeneity of MPQ was assessed by Mokken Analysis; item-level severity and item-level sensitivity were calculated via Two-Parameter Logistic model; Total Information Function was evaluated to assess reliability of MPQ; internal consistency was calculated via Cronbach's alpha and Sijtsma and Molenaar rho; sensitivity and specificity were assessed via Receiver Operating Characteristic curves. RESULTS: The MPQ showed unidimensional factor structure; satisfactory homogeneity of the item and total score, except items 4 ("my pain is everywhere") and 6 ("I cannot understand why I feel this pain"); good discrimination, except item 7 ("I feel empty"); low information provided by items 4, 6, 7; good reliability for mild and high levels of mental pain; poor reliability for low levels of mental pain; acceptable internal consistency; acceptable sensitivity and specificity. LIMITATIONS: The sample size is barely sufficient to calculate item parameters; it is a monocentric study that enrolled outpatients from a tertiary facility; the study enrolled migraine outpatients not affected by other medical disease. CONCLUSIONS: The MPQ showed good psychometric properties. Items 4, 6, 7 should be considered with caution when migraine patients are evaluated. A score of at least 3 indicates mental pain clinically relevant, a score of at least 2 indicates distress. These data are preliminary and refer to migraine patients, results might be different in psychiatric populations.

Meniscus ECM-functionalised hydrogels containing infrapatellar fat pad-derived stem cells for bioprinting of regionally defined meniscal tissue.

Injuries to the meniscus of the knee commonly lead to osteoarthritis. Current therapies for meniscus regeneration, including meniscectomies and scaffold implantation, fail to achieve complete functional regeneration of the tissue. This has led to increased interest in cell and gene therapies and tissue engineering approaches to meniscus regeneration. The implantation of a biomimetic implant, incorporating cells, growth factors, and extracellular matrix (ECM)-derived proteins, represents a promising approach to functional meniscus regeneration. The objective of this study was to develop a range of ECM-functionalised bioinks suitable for 3D bioprinting of meniscal tissue. To this end, alginate hydrogels were functionalised with ECM derived from the inner and outer regions of the meniscus and loaded with infrapatellar fat pad-derived stem cells. In the absence of exogenously supplied growth factors, inner meniscus ECM promoted chondrogenesis of fat pad-derived stem cells, whereas outer meniscus ECM promoted a more elongated cell morphology and the development of a more fibroblastic phenotype. With exogenous growth factors supplementation, a more fibrogenic phenotype was observed in outer ECM-functionalised hydrogels supplemented with connective tissue growth factor, whereas inner ECM-functionalised hydrogels supplemented with TGFß3 supported the highest levels of Sox-9 and type II collagen gene expression and sulfated glycosaminoglycans (sGAG) deposition. The final phase of the study demonstrated the printability of these ECM-functionalised hydrogels, demonstrating that their codeposition with polycaprolactone microfibres dramatically improved the mechanical properties of the 3D bioprinted constructs with no noticeable loss in cell viability. These bioprinted constructs represent an exciting new approach to tissue engineering of functional meniscal grafts.