Influence of physical activity on endothelial function in people living with HIV.

INTRODUCTION: Decreased physical activity is a major cardiovascular risk factor that is particularly pronounced in people living with HIV (PLHIV), who are more susceptible to endothelial dysfunction and accelerated atherosclerosis than the general population due to multiple mechanisms. The aim of the present study was to analyse whether regular physical activity is capable of improving endothelial function measured by flow-mediated dilatation (FMD) in PLHIV. METHODS: We performed FMD measurement in 38 PLHIV, along with the assessment of their regular physical activity level using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ). RESULTS: Flow-mediated dilatation results in PLHIV were 0.31 ± 0.06 mm and 7.34% ± 1.41% for absolute and relative FMD, respectively. IPAQ results showed that the average weekly level of physical activity was 3631.1 ± 1526.7 MET-min/week, whereas the average daily sitting time was 287.3 ± 102.7 min/day. Predictors jointly accounted for 48% (adjusted value 42%) of FMD variance. Bootstrapped confidence levels revealed that physical activity had a statistically significant effect on the outcome [beta = 0.517, 2.5% confidence interval (CI) = 0.205, 97.5% CI = 0.752]. CONCLUSION: Physical activity represents a widely available and uncostly tool that is capable of improving endothelial function and overall cardiovascular health in PLHIV.

Patients with neuropathic pain from lumbosacral radiculopathy demonstrate similar pressure pain thresholds and conditioned pain modulation to those with fibromyalgia.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the study was to evaluate pain thresholds, impairment of the endogenous pain modulatory system, and self-reported cognitive-emotional and central sensitization-related symptoms among three subject groups: a rarely studied patient cohort with neuropathic pain from lumbosacral radiculopathy (NPLSR), patients with fibromyalgia (FM) and healthy controls (HC). METHODS: Patient-reported pain-related symptomology was evaluated with psychometricallyvalidated questionnaires. Pressure pain threshold (PPT), heat pain threshold (HPT), and cold pain threshold (CPT) were assessed in the low back and contralateral forearm. Conditioned pain modulation (CPM) was evaluated with a recently introduced methodology that accounts for a standard error of measurement. RESULTS: Compared to the HC subjects, the FM and NPLSR subjects had significantly lower pain thresholds and more CPM impairment. No significant differences in PPT and CPM were observed between the FM and NPLSR groups. Significant group differences were found in self-reported symptoms of depression, anxiety, stress, and central sensitization. Self-reported symptom severity increased in a stair-step fashion, with the HC group scoring lowest and FM group scoring highest. CONCLUSION: The NPLSR group manifested CPM dysfunction and pressure hyperalgesia at similar levels to the FM group, indicating that these two chronic pain syndromes, likely based on different pathophysiological mechanisms, in fact share some common pain processing features. However, though both patient groups demonstrated similarities in pain processing, self-reported cognitive-emotional and central sensitization-related symptom severity was significantly higher in the FM cohort, which distinguished them from the chronic NPLSR cohort.