ArticlePloS one2013
The course of serum inflammatory biomarkers following whiplash injury and their relationship to sensory and muscle measures: a longitudinal cohort study.
Article in PloS one, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 28 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
28 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 50 citations in OpenAlex.
- Nerve pathology and neuropathic pain after whiplash injury: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Pain · 2022Pooled it
- Skin inflammatory cytokine gene expression in chronic whiplash-associated disorder: a cross-sectional study.European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society · 2026Article
- Neuro-immune contributors to persistent musculoskeletal pain: from mechanisms to clinical assessment and management.Musculoskeletal science & practice · 2026Review
- Article
- Biological Markers of Brain Network Connectivity and Pain Sensitivity Distinguish Low Coping from High Coping Veterans with Persistent Post-Traumatic Headache.Journal of neurotrauma · 2025Observational
- Article
- The presence and prognosis of nerve pathology following whiplash injury: a prospective cohort study.Brain : a journal of neurology · 2025Article
- Systemic Inflammation, Sleep, and Psychological Factors Determine Recovery Trajectories for People With Neck Pain: An Exploratory Study.The journal of pain · 2024Article
- No evidence for causal effects of C-reactive protein (CRP) on chronic pain conditions: a Mendelian randomization study.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2024Article
- Genetic impact of blood C-reactive protein levels on chronic spinal & widespread pain.European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society · 2023Article
- Does peripheral neuroinflammation predict chronicity following whiplash injury? Protocol for a prospective cohort study.BMJ open · 2022Article
- Fat Infiltration of Multifidus Muscle Is Correlated with Neck Disability in Patients with Non-Specific Chronic Neck Pain.Journal of clinical medicine · 2022Article
- Article
- Editorial: Whiplash-associated disorder-advances in pathophysiology, patient assessment and clinical management.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Systemic neuroimmune responses in people with non-specific neck pain and cervical radiculopathy, and associations with clinical, psychological, and lifestyle factors.Frontiers in molecular neuroscience · 2022Article
- Identifying the Most Important Confounders When Assessing the Association Between Low-Grade Systemic Inflammation and Musculoskeletal Pain: A Modified Delphi Study.Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.) · 2021Article
- Latent profile analysis of blood marker phenotypes and their relationships with clinical pain and interference reports in people with acute musculoskeletal trauma.Canadian journal of pain = Revue canadienne de la douleur · 2021Article
- Personalised treatments for acute whiplash injuries: A pilot study of nested N-of-1 trials in a multiple baseline single-case experimental design.Contemporary clinical trials communications · 2019Article
- Pathophysiology behind prolonged whiplash associated disorders: study protocol for an experimental study.BMC musculoskeletal disorders · 2019Article
- Intramuscular fat is present in cervical multifidus but not soleus in patients with chronic whiplash associated disorders.PloS one · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Tissue damage or pathological alterations are not detectable in the majority of people with whiplash associated disorders (WAD). Widespread hyperalgisa, morphological muscle changes and psychological distress are common features of WAD. However little is known about the presence of inflammation and its association with symptom persistence or the clinical presentation of WAD. This study aimed to prospectively investigate changes in serum inflammatory biomarker levels from the acute (<3 weeks) to chronic (>3 months) stages of whiplash injury. It also aimed to determine relationships between biomarker levels and hyperalgesia, fatty muscle infiltrates of the cervical extensors identified on MRI and psychological factors. 40 volunteers with acute WAD and 18 healthy controls participated. Participants with WAD were classified at 3 months as recovered/mild disability or having moderate/severe disability using the Neck Disability Index. At baseline both WAD groups showed elevated serum levels of CRP but by 3 months levels remained elevated only in the moderate/severe group. The recovered/mild disability WAD group had higher levels of TNF-α at both time points than both the moderate/severe WAD group and healthy controls. There were no differences found in serum IL-1β. Moderate relationships were found between hyperalgesia and CRP at both time points and between hyperalgesia and IL-1β 3 months post injury. There was a moderate negative correlation between TNF-α and amount of fatty muscle infiltrate and pain intensity at 3 months. Only a weak relationship was found between CRP and pain catastrophising and no relationship between biomarker levels and posttraumatic stress symptoms. The results of the study indicate that inflammatory biomarkers may play a role in outcomes following whiplash injury as well as being associated with hyperalgesia and fatty muscle infiltrate in the cervical extensors.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.