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Diagnostics
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Advances in Pain Medicine: Diagnostic and Management Innovations
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Advances in Pain Medicine: Diagnostic and Management Innovations

A Special Issue of Diagnostics (ISSN 2075-4418) belonging to the section "Clinical Diagnosis and Prognosis".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 28 February 2027 | Viewed by 1758

Editors

Dr. Yuchen Lee

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Graduate Institute of Acupuncture Science, College of Chinese Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung 404328, Taiwan
Interests: acupuncture study; clinical; meridian; education
Prof. Dr. Dongwoo Nam

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Acupuncture & Moxibustion Medicine, College of Korean Medicine, Kyung Hee University, Seoul 02447, Republic of Korea
Interests: acupuncture and moxibustion; clinical trials; clinical practice guideline
Dr. Cheng-Hao Tu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Graduate Institute of Acupuncture Science, College of Chinese Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung 404328, Taiwan
Interests: functional brain imaging; pain medicine; cognitive neuroscience; acupuncture

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue will highlight cutting-edge advances in pain medicine, focusing on innovations to improve diagnostic accuracy, enable personalized treatment, and enhance real-world outcomes. We welcome multidisciplinary contributions spanning basic science, translational research, clinical trials, digital health, and implementation studies that address acute, chronic, cancer-related, and neuropathic pain across diverse populations.

Suggested topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Novel pain phenotyping and mechanisms (nociplastic pain, central sensitization, neuroimmune pathways);
  • Biomarkers and objective measures (imaging, QST, wearables, digital biomarkers);
  • Precision medicine approaches and stratified care pathways;
  • Integrated care models (rehabilitation, psychology, multidisciplinary clinics). 

We welcome original research articles, systematic reviews/meta-analyses, clinical trials, brief reports, consensus/guidelines, narrative reviews (by invitation), and high-quality case series with clear practical implications.

Dr. Yuchen Lee
Prof. Dr. Dongwoo Nam
Dr. Cheng-Hao Tu
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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-anonymized 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

  • pain medicine
  • chronic pain
  • neuropathic pain
  • nociplastic pain
  • biomarkers
  • imaging
  • quantitative sensory testing
  • artificial intelligence
  • digital health
  • multimodal analgesia
  • neuromodulation
  • precision medicine

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  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

22 pages, 629 KB  
Article
Characterising Pain in Post-COVID-19 Syndrome: An Observational Study of Intensity and Sensitivity
by Laura Pérez-Gisbert, Gregory Reychler, Beatriz Brea-Gómez, Concepción Morales-García, Marie C. Valenza and Irene Torres-Sánchez
Diagnostics 2026, 16(13), 2023; https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics16132023 - 29 Jun 2026
Viewed by 394
Abstract
Background/Objectives: Post-COVID-19 syndrome (PCS) is frequently accompanied by pain, which may coexist with alterations in multiple health domains. However, pain in PCS has rarely been explored from a multidimensional approach combining subjective and objective measures. Objective: To describe pain in subjects with [...] Read more.
Background/Objectives: Post-COVID-19 syndrome (PCS) is frequently accompanied by pain, which may coexist with alterations in multiple health domains. However, pain in PCS has rarely been explored from a multidimensional approach combining subjective and objective measures. Objective: To describe pain in subjects with PCS using pain intensity and the pressure pain threshold (PPT), and to examine the associations between these measures and descriptive characteristics as well as health status. Methods: A cross-sectional observational study was conducted in 45 previously hospitalised adults with PCS. Pain intensity was assessed using the visual analogue scale and PPT was assessed by algometry. Health status included fatigue, dyspnoea, anxiety, depression, quality of life, functionality, frailty, physical activity, muscle quality, muscle strength, physical performance, and functional capacity. Analyses were conducted using SPSS v30.0. Results: Participants showed moderate pain intensity and variability in PPT, with a significant inverse association between both measures. Bivariate analyses showed that higher pain intensity and lower PPT were associated with worse physical, psychological, and functional outcomes. In regression analyses, pain intensity was associated with sex, length of hospital stay, PPT, and quality of life; PPT was associated with sex, pain intensity, and grip strength. Model explanatory capacity varied, and some models were not statistically significant. Conclusions: Subjects with PCS exhibited moderate pain intensity and variability in pain sensitivity, with an association between subjective and objective pain measures. Pain measures were associated with multiple health domains at the bivariate level, while regression analyses identified a limited number of associations with variable explanatory capacity. These findings support comprehensive pain assessment in PCS. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Pain Medicine: Diagnostic and Management Innovations)
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15 pages, 905 KB  
Article
Post-Dental and Alveolar Nerve-Related Trigeminal Pain in Patients Referred with Trigeminal Neuralgia Terminology: A Retrospective Tertiary-Center Diagnostic Pathway Study
by Shachar Zion Shemesh, Paz Kelmer, Jose Asprilla, Yotam Hadari, Itay Goor Aryeh and Lior Ungar
Diagnostics 2026, 16(11), 1674; https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics16111674 - 29 May 2026
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 972
Abstract
Background: Trigeminal neuralgia (TN), a facial pain disorder classically characterized by recurrent brief electric-shock-like paroxysms in one or more trigeminal divisions, frequently traverses dental pathways before specialist evaluation. Conversely, dental extraction, endodontic treatment, implant procedures, and third-molar surgery may injure the inferior [...] Read more.
Background: Trigeminal neuralgia (TN), a facial pain disorder classically characterized by recurrent brief electric-shock-like paroxysms in one or more trigeminal divisions, frequently traverses dental pathways before specialist evaluation. Conversely, dental extraction, endodontic treatment, implant procedures, and third-molar surgery may injure the inferior alveolar, superior alveolar, mental, or lingual nerves and generate painful post-traumatic trigeminal neuropathy. We sought to define the diagnostic interface between classical TN and post-dental/alveolar nerve-related trigeminal pain in a tertiary referral cohort. Methods: We performed a retrospective single-center diagnostic-pathway study using a clinical dataset comprising 672 unique patients. A dental-interface trigeminal candidate cohort was assembled from aggregated patient-level source notes and adjudicated into five prespecified phenotypes: confirmed alveolar neuropathy, post-extraction neuropathic onset, odontogenic diagnostic misclassification, mixed/uncertain dental-interface pain, and clean classical TN. Extracted variables included demographics, trigeminal branch documentation, sensory deficit, dental procedure history, post-extraction onset, MRI and neurovascular conflict language, secondary structural disease, TN-directed medication exposure, invasive treatment exposure, documented outcomes, and time from first specialist documentation to first dated invasive treatment. Results: Among 201 dental-interface trigeminal candidates, 19 patients (9.5%) had confirmed alveolar neuropathy, 31 (15.4%) had post-extraction neuropathic onset, 20 (10.0%) represented odontogenic diagnostic misclassification, 115 (57.2%) remained mixed/uncertain, and 16 (8.0%) fulfilled a clean classical TN phenotype. Overall, 114 patients (56.7%) carried explicit TN terminology somewhere in the chart. Non-classical alveolar/post-dental syndromes comprised 70 patients (34.8%). Compared with clean classical TN, this non-classical group had higher rates of documented oral sensory deficit (38.6% vs. 0.0%, p = 0.002), post-extraction onset (52.9% vs. 0.0%, p < 0.001), extraction history (61.4% vs. 0.0%, p < 0.001), and secondary structural disease (22.9% vs. 0.0%, p = 0.035). Neurovascular conflict or vascular-loop language did not distinguish non-classical alveolar/post-dental syndromes from clean classical TN (38.6% vs. 37.5%, p = 1.000). Conclusions: A substantial minority of tertiary dental-interface trigeminal referrals represented alveolar/post-dental syndromes rather than clean classical TN, even while carrying TN labels and accumulating TN-directed treatment exposure. Post-extraction onset, lower-lip/chin or intraoral sensory change, and pain persisting despite extraction should prompt careful phenotyping before classical TN-directed escalation. The alveolar–trigeminal interface can be operationalized as a recognizable diagnostic pathway with direct implications for multidisciplinary facial-pain evaluation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Pain Medicine: Diagnostic and Management Innovations)
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