Pain ratings at the thresholds are necessary for interpretation of quantitative

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Muscle Nerve. 2005 Jun 2

Pain ratings at the thresholds are necessary for interpretation of

quantitative sensory testing.

KG, Cook T, Backonja MM.

Department of Neurology, University of Wisconsin, 600 Highland

Avenue, Madison, Wisconsin 53792, USA.

Published databases of quantitative sensory testing (QST) for sensory

thresholds provide a means for detecting deficits of the

thermonociceptive sensory nervous system. These databases, however,

do not assist in the assessment of neuropathic pain, which is

characterized by pain or hyperalgesia, or both. We utilized the

method of levels for innocuous thermal stimuli, warm and cool, and

the method of limits for noxious thermal stimuli, hot pain and cold

pain, to determine QST thresholds. Stimuli were applied to distal and

proximal sites in the upper and lower limbs of 50 healthy volunteers,

ranging in age from 19 to 59 years. Thresholds for innocuous and

noxious stimuli in this study were similar to previously published

results.

The mean pain rating across all sites at thresholds for noxious heat

and cold stimuli was 4.10, as rated on a 0-10 numeric scale.

Suggestions are provided for combining threshold information for

innocuous and noxious stimuli and related pain ratings for the

evaluation of sensory nervous system function and, specifically,

neuropathic pain.