Neuronal Recovery Research
Clinic of Neurology and Polyclinic
Faculty of Medicine
Bergmannsheil University Hospital
Bürkle-de-la-Camp-Platz 1
44789 Bochum
Phone:
+49 (0)234 302-3402
Email:
elena.krumova@ruhr-uni-bochum.de
I have been interested in neurological pain research since the beginning of my scientific work. One focus of my research is to investigate the underlying mechanisms of pain generation in various pain syndromes such as neuropathic pain of different origins, complex regional pain syndromes and post-traumatic headache using human-experimental pain models and in clinical studies. The aim of my research is to identify risk patients at an early stage and to optimize the pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatment strategies for this patient group.
Another focus of my W1 Professorship for Neuronal Regeneration at the Department of Neurology of the BG University Hospital Bergmannsheil gGmbH Bochum is to develop and establish standardized monitoring for patients with nerve lesions regarding their motor and sensory deficits. The aim of this research is to correlate the regeneration processes to the primary injury pattern and to identify groups of patients who have a severe course of the disease and delayed healing. We hope that having this information, we would be able to derive targeted treatment strategies and interventions to improve the neuronal regeneration.
For this purpose, we apply methods for the functional and morphological examination of the somatosensory nervous system, such as skin biopsies to determine the intraepidermal nerve fiber density, corneal confocal microscopy to examine the corneal nerve fibers, quantitative sensory testing and pain-associated electrically evoked potentials.
Enax-Krumova, E., Forsting, J., Rohm, M., Schwenkreis, P., Tegenthoff, M., Meyer-Frießem, C. H., & Schlaffke, L. (2023). Quantitative muscle magnetic resonance imaging depicts microstructural abnormalities but no signs of inflammation or dystrophy in post-COVID-19 condition. European Journal of Neurology, 30(4), 970–981. https://doi.org/10.1111/ene.15709
Truini, A., Aleksovska, K., Anderson, C. C., Attal, N., Baron, R., Bennett, D. L., Bouhassira, D., Cruccu, G., Eisenberg, E., Enax-Krumova, E., Davis, K. D., Di Stefano, G., Finnerup, N. B., Garcia-Larrea, L., Hanafi, I., Haroutounian, S., Karlsson, P., Rakusa, M., Rice, A. S. C., . . . Veluchamy, A. (2023). Joint European Academy of Neurology-European Pain Federation-Neuropathic Pain Special Interest Group of the International Association for the Study of Pain guidelines on neuropathic pain assessment. European Journal of Neurology, 30(8), 2177–2196. https://doi.org/10.1111/ene.15831
Jessen, J., Özgül, Ö. S., Höffken, O., Schwenkreis, P., Tegenthoff, M., & Enax-Krumova, E. (2022). Somatosensory dysfunction in patients with posttraumatic headache: A systematic review. Cephalalgia : An International Journal of Headache, 42(1), 73–81. https://doi.org/10.1177/03331024211030496
Enax-Krumova, E., Attal, N., Bouhassira, D., Freynhagen, R., Gierthmühlen, J., Hansson, P., Kuehler, B. M., Maier, C., Sachau, J., Segerdahl, M., Tölle, T., Treede, R.‑D., Ventzel, L., Baron, R., & Vollert, J. (2021). Contralateral Sensory and Pain Perception Changes in Patients With Unilateral Neuropathy. Neurology, 97(4), e389-e402. https://doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0000000000012229
Meyer-Frießem, C. H., Wiegand, T., Eitner, L., Maier, C., Mainka, T., Vollert, J., & Enax-Krumova, E. (2019). Effects of Spinal Cord and Peripheral Nerve Stimulation Reflected in Sensory Profiles and Endogenous Pain Modulation. The Clinical Journal of Pain, 35(2), 111–120. https://doi.org/10.1097/AJP.0000000000000661
Vollert, J., Magerl, W., Baron, R., Binder, A., Enax-Krumova, E., Geisslinger, G., Gierthmühlen, J., Henrich, F., Hüllemann, P., Klein, T., Lötsch, J., Maier, C., Oertel, B., Schuh-Hofer, S., Tölle, T. R., & Treede, R.‑D. (2018). Pathophysiological mechanisms of neuropathic pain: Comparison of sensory phenotypes in patients and human surrogate pain models. Pain, 159(6), 1090–1102. https://doi.org/10.1097/j.pain.0000000000001190
Enax-Krumova, E., Lenz, M., Frettlöh, J., Höffken, O., Reinersmann, A., Schwarzer, A., Westermann, A., Tegenthoff, M., & Maier, C. (2017). Changes of the Sensory Abnormalities and Cortical Excitability in Patients with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome of the Upper Extremity After 6 Months of Multimodal Treatment. Pain Medicine (Malden, Mass.), 18(1), 95–106. https://doi.org/10.1093/pm/pnw147
Gierthmühlen, J., Enax-Krumova, E., Attal, N., Bouhassira, D., Cruccu, G., Finnerup, N. B., Haanpää, M., Hansson, P., Jensen, T. S., Freynhagen, R., Kennedy, J. D., Mainka, T., Rice, A. S. C., Segerdahl, M., Sindrup, S. H., Serra, J., Tölle, T., Treede, R.‑D., Baron, R., & Maier, C. (2015). Who is healthy? Aspects to consider when including healthy volunteers in QST--based studies-a consensus statement by the EUROPAIN and NEUROPAIN consortia. Pain, 156(11), 2203–2211. https://doi.org/10.1097/j.pain.0000000000000227
Pfau, D. B., Krumova, E., Treede, R.‑D., Baron, R., Toelle, T., Birklein, F., Eich, W., Geber, C., Gerhardt, A., Weiss, T., Magerl, W., & Maier, C. (2014). Quantitative sensory testing in the German Research Network on Neuropathic Pain (DFNS): Reference data for the trunk and application in patients with chronic postherpetic neuralgia. Pain, 155(5), 1002–1015. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pain.2014.02.004
Backonja, M. M., Attal, N., Baron, R., Bouhassira, D., Drangholt, M., Dyck, P. J., Edwards, R. R., Freeman, R., Gracely, R., Haanpaa, M. H., Hansson, P., Hatem, S. M., Krumova, E., Jensen, T. S., Maier, C., Mick, G., Rice, A. S., Rolke, R., Treede, R.‑D., . . . Ziegler, D. (2013). Value of quantitative sensory testing in neurological and pain disorders: Neupsig consensus. Pain, 154(9), 1807–1819. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pain.2013.05.047
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Last update: Jul 23, 2024
