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A 10-year-old male neutered cross-bred dog was presented with a 2-month history of polyuria and polydipsia. Biochemistry revealed hypercalcaemia. Parathyroid hormone was increased, consistent with primary hyperparathyroidism. Ultrasonographic imaging was consistent with a parathyroid mass. A bilateral caudal parathyroidectomy was performed. The left caudal parathyroid gland was firm and enlarged at 7 mm diameter. The right caudal parathyroid gland was also prominent at 4 mm diameter, but had normal consistency. Histopathology revealed a water-clear cell hyperplasia of the left caudal parathyroid gland. The right caudal parathyroid gland had normal morphology. Water-clear cells are derived from chief cells, differentiated by their abundant cytoplasmic glycogen. Water-clear cell hyperplasia has been described as a cause of primary hyperparathyroidism in humans. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first reported case of water-clear cell hyperplasia of the parathyroid gland in a dog. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The biopsychosocial model is fundamental for the understanding and treatment of chronic pain; however, little research has focused on whether those affected show a biopsychosocial understanding. The multidimensional questionnaire Biopsychosocial Pain Concept Matrix (BiPS matrix) is presented. The conception of the BiPS matrix is based on the biological, psychological and social areas as well as on the common sense model of self-regulation with five dimensions: (1) type of disorder, (2) assumptions on the causes, (3) consequences, (4) duration of the disease and (5) possibilities for control and treatment., Objective: The present study aims to examine the content relevance and comprehension of the areas, dimensions and items, including the use of the BiPS matrix with children by interdisciplinary expert ratings. The questionnaire can be perspectively used by treating professionals for diagnostic purposes., Method: In an online study 17 experts were questioned. In addition to descriptive statistics, comments were evaluated using qualitative content analysis according to Mayring., Results: All experts rated the assessment of pain concepts with the BiPS matrix as well as the areas and dimensions as very relevant. With respect to the items, suggestions were made mainly regarding the wording of the items and adjustments for children., Discussion: From an expert point of view the BiPS matrix represents a relevant instrument. Further research on the psychometric properties of the BiPS matrix in adults and children is indicated. In addition, the BiPS matrix can also be used to investigate pain concepts of medical and psychotherapeutic professional groups to demonstrate the biopsychosocial understanding of pain and the associated treatment options., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

When pain persists beyond healing time and becomes a "false alarm" of bodily threat, protective strategies, such as avoidance, are no longer adaptive. More specifically, generalization of avoidance based on conceptual knowledge may contribute to chronic pain disability. Using an operant robotic-arm avoidance paradigm, healthy participants (N = 50), could perform more effortful movements in the threat context (eg, pictures of outdoor scenes) to avoid painful stimuli, whereas no pain occured in the safe context (eg, pictures of indoor scenes). Next, we investigated avoidance generalization to conceptually related contexts (ie, novel outdoor/indoor scenes). As expected, participants avoided more when presented with novel contexts conceptually related to the threat context than in novel exemplars of the safe context. Yet, exemplars belonging to one category (outdoor/indoor scenes) were not interchangeable; there was a generalization decrement. Posthoc analyses revealed that contingency-aware participants (n = 27), but not non-aware participants (n = 23), showed the avoidance generalization effect and also generalized their differential pain-expectancy and pain-related fear more to novel background scenes conceptually related to the original threat context. In contrast, the fear-potentiated startle response was not modulated by context. PERSPECTIVE: This article provides evidence for contextual modulation of avoidance behavior and its generalization to novel exemplars of the learned categories based on conceptual relatedness. Our findings suggest that category-based generalization is a plausible mechanism explaining why patients display avoidance behavior in novel situations that were never directly associated with pain., (Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)