scholarly journals Central Sensıtızatıon ın Axıal Spondyloarthrıtıs: An Exploratıve Study wıth Quantıtatıve Sensory Testıng and Clınıcal Scales

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Feyza Nur Yücel ◽  
Mehmet Tuncay Duruöz

ABSTRACT Objective To evaluate the central sensitization (CS) and the related parameters in patients with axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA). Methods Quantitative sensory testing (QST) which consists of pressure pain threshold (PPT), temporal summation (TS), and conditioned pain modulation (CPM) were applied to the participants. Disease activity, functional status, sleep quality, pain, depression, and fatigue were assessed. Patients were divided as the ones with and without CS according to the central sensitization inventory (CSI) and the results were compared. Results One hundred patients and fifty controls were recruited. Sixty axSpA patients had CS. When QST results were compared between the patient and control groups, all PPT scores were found lower (p<0.05) in patients. Regarding the comparison of the patients with and without CS, sacroiliac, and trapezius PPT scores were found lower in the patients with CS (p<0.05). On the other hand, there was no significant difference in the mean TS scores (p>0.05) between patients and controls, and in patients with and without CS. All investigated comorbidities were found to be significantly more frequent (p<0.001) in the patients with CS. In regression analysis female gender, morning stiffness duration, CPM, depression, and fatigue were detected as related parameters with CSI scores. Conclusion CS and related comorbidities were found to be increased in axSpA patients. This increase should be taken into consideration in the management of these patients.

Pain Medicine ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin J De Vita ◽  
Katherine Buckheit ◽  
Christina E Gilmour ◽  
Dezarie Moskal ◽  
Stephen A Maisto

Abstract Objective Quantitative sensory testing is an expanding pain research domain with numerous clinical and research applications. There is a recognized need for brief reliable quantitative sensory testing protocols that enhance assessment feasibility. This study aimed to integrate static (pain threshold, tolerance, suprathreshold) and dynamic (conditioned pain modulation, offset analgesia, temporal summation) pain reactivity measures into a brief 20-minute protocol that uses a single portable device. The test-retest performance of this optimized protocol was evaluated. Design Using a test-retest design, the brief quantitative sensory testing assessment was administered to participants on two occasions separated by exactly 7 days. Setting A clinical psychology research laboratory at Syracuse University. Subjects Participants were 33 healthy adults recruited from Syracuse University’s online research participation pool. Methods A portable computerized quantitative sensory testing device delivered contact-heat pain to assess static and dynamic pain measures in participants. Dynamic responses were continuously recorded using a computerized visual analog scale. Results Pain threshold, tolerance, and suprathreshold exhibited excellent reliability (intraclass correlations ranged from 0.80 to 0.83). Conditioned pain modulation, offset analgesia, temporal summation yielded reliability in the good to excellent range (intraclass correlations ranged from 0.66 to 0.71). Conclusions Findings suggested that this brief integrated QST protocol may reliably monitor human pain reactivity over brief periods. This protocol may enhance quantitative sensory testing feasibility in clinical and research settings.


Pain Medicine ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johannes Achenbach ◽  
Anh-Thu Tran ◽  
Burkhardt Jaeger ◽  
Karl Kapitza ◽  
Michael Bernateck ◽  
...  

Abstract Objective Chronic pain is a debilitating condition of multifactorial origin, often without physical findings to explain the presenting symptoms. Of the possible etiologies of persisting painful symptoms, somatoform disorders and functional somatic syndromes (FSS) are among the most challenging, with a prevalence of 8–20%. Many different somatoform disorders and FSS have overlapping symptoms, with pain being the most prevalent one. The concept of multisomatoform disorder (MSD) has been developed to acknowledge that fact. We hypothesized that the concept of MSD will be reflected in a distinct sensory profile of patients compared with healthy controls and possibly provide insight into the type and pathophysiology of the pain commonly experienced by patients. Design We performed comprehensive quantitative sensory testing (QST) in 151 patients and 149 matched controls. Results There were significant differences in the sensory profiles of patients compared with controls. Patients with MSD showed a combination of tactile and thermal hypesthesia combined with mechanical and cold hyperalgesia. This was true for measurements at test and control sites, with the exception of vibration detection threshold and mechanical pain threshold. Among the observed changes, a marked sensory loss of function, as evidenced by an increase in cold detection threshold, and a marked gain of function, as evidenced by a decrease of pressure pain threshold, were most notable. There was no evidence of concurrent medication influencing QST results. Conclusions The observed somatosensory profile of patients with MSD resembles that of patients suffering from neuropathic pain with evidence of central sensitization.


2013 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 363-372 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick H. Finan ◽  
Luis F. Buenaver ◽  
Sara C. Bounds ◽  
Shahid Hussain ◽  
Raymond J. Park ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthieu Vincenot ◽  
Alexia Coulombe-Lévêque ◽  
Monica Sean ◽  
Félix Camirand Lemyre ◽  
Louis Gendron ◽  
...  

Introduction: Quantitative sensory testing is frequently used in research to assess endogenous pain modulation mechanisms, such as Temporal Summation (TS) and Conditioned Pain Modulation (CPM), reflecting excitatory and inhibitory mechanisms, respectively. Numerous studies found that a dysregulation of these mechanisms is associated with chronic pain conditions. In turn, such a patient's “profile” (increased TS and/or weakened CPM) could be used to recommend different pharmacological treatments. However, the procedure to evaluate these mechanisms is time-consuming and requires expensive equipment that is not available in the clinical setting. In this study, we aim to identify psychological, physiological and socio-demographic markers that could serve as proxies to allow healthcare professionals to identify these pain phenotypes in clinic, and consequently optimize pharmacological treatments.Method: We aim to recruit a healthy participant cohort (n = 360) and a chronic pain patient cohort (n = 108). Independent variables will include psychological questionnaires, pain measurements, physiological measures and sociodemographic characteristics. Dependent variables will include TS and CPM, which will be measured using quantitative sensory testing in a single session. We will evaluate one prediction model and two validation models (for healthy and chronic pain participants) using multiple regression analysis between TS/CPM and our independent variables. The significance thresholds will be set at p = 0.05, respectively.Perspectives: This study will allow us to develop a predictive model to compute the pain modulation profile of individual patients based on their biopsychosocial characteristics. The development of the predictive model is the first step toward the overarching goal of providing clinicians with a set of quick and cheap tests, easily applicable in clinical practice to orient pharmacological treatments.


2012 ◽  
Vol 30 (4_suppl) ◽  
pp. 425-425
Author(s):  
Sangeetha Reddy ◽  
Nancy Kwon ◽  
Halla Sayed Nimeiri ◽  
Mary Frances Mulcahy ◽  
Robert Norm Harden ◽  
...  

425 Background: Acute oxaliplatin neurotoxicity has been shown to be predictive of chronic oxaliplatin neuropathy. A recent study by Attal et al showed that tQST (thermal quantitative sensory testing) at cycle 4 provides a noninvasive method for predicting chronic neuropathy. A high risk population defined as those experiencing pain with a ≥ 20 degree cold stimulus had an OR of 39 for developing a severe chronic neuropathy at 1 year. Our study was designed to test the utility of tQST at earlier time points for predicting chronic neuropathy. Methods: Gastrointestinal cancer patients receiving FOLFOX were evaluated over a 1 year period for the development of acute and chronic oxaliplatin neurotoxicity: before starting FOLFOX, 1 hour into oxaliplatin infusion, before cycles 2, 4 and 12, and 1 year after start of treatment. Patients underwent a series of QSTs to measure thermal and mechanical sensitivities, fine motor skills, vibration detection, validated questionnaires, and presence of hyperalgesia. Results: Preliminary analysis of 13 patients using cycle 4 data as a surrogate for chronic neuropathy shows that cold pain (the temperature at which subjects report pain) prior to starting FOLFOX and at cycle 2 is predictive of cold pain at cycle 4, rs = 0.67 (p=.01) and 0.49 (p=0.09), respectively. There is a significant difference in cold pain across all time points between high and low risk populations(p=0.02 at baseline, p=0.04 during cycle 1, p=0.08 at cycle 2, and p=0.03 at cycle 4). Correlation between cycles 1 and 4 is seen for changes in cold sensitivity from baseline, rs = 0.52 (p=0.07). Conclusions: Baseline tQST correlates to cycle 4 measurements and may be an early predictor of patients at the highest risk for chronic neuropathy. These preliminary data indicate an inherent, pre-existing sensitivity to oxaliplatin induced chronic neuropathy for high risk patients which can be detected with tQST. Early identification of these patients can allow for preventive measures to decrease the incidence of this debilitating chronic adverse effect of oxaliplatin. A larger biomarker validation study is planned using tQST to stratify patients into high and low risk.


2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 138-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Burkhard Gustorff ◽  
Chris Poole ◽  
Herwig Kloimstein ◽  
Nicole Hacker ◽  
Rudolf Likar

AbstractBackground and aimsPeripheral neuropathic pain (PNeP) is a chronic and disabling condition for which no predictors of response to treatment have yet been identified. Clinical studies show that while many patients with PNeP respond positively to treatment with the capsaicin 8% patch, others do not. This study used quantitative sensory testing (QST) to determine whether any patient characteristics can predict response to treatment with the capsaicin 8% patch.MethodsThis was a prospective, non-placebo-controlled, observational study. Patients used the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) to assess their pain at baseline and then on Days 1, 7–10 (from here referred to as Day 7/10), 28 and 84 following treatment with the capsaicin 8% patch. QST was undertaken at the same timepoints on the painful area at the region of maximum PNeP and on a contralateral, control area. In addition, the size of the painful area was assessed at baseline and Days 7/10, 28 and 84.ResultsA total of 57 patients were treated. Among 54 evaluable patients, 19 (35.2%) achieved a ≥30% reduction in VAS pain score at Day 7/10 post-treatment compared with baseline — these were defined as ‘responders’. Analysis of the QST data showed that the PNeP area in responders, but not in non-responders, had a significantly lower pressure pain threshold compared with the control area at baseline (median 320 kPa vs. 480 kPa, respectively; p = .004). Furthermore, non-responders had approximately three times greater degree of allodynia at baseline compared with responders across tests using brush, cotton wool and Q-tip. These differences were significant for tests using brush and cotton wool (p = .024 and p = .046, respectively) and approached significance in the test using Q-tip (p = .066). Following treatment with the capsaicin 8% patch, responders showed a trend towards a reduction in warm perception and also appeared to show normalization of the pinprick hyperalgesia at some stimulus levels. Responders to therapy had significantly greater reductions than non-responders in the size of the painful area at Day 28 (p = .011) and Day 84 (p = .005) following treatment. However, both responders and non-responders had meaningful reductions in the size of the painful area compared with baseline values.ConclusionsThis study suggests that differences can be identified in the sensory profiles of patients with PNeP who respond to the capsaicin 8% patch and those who do not, specifically pressure pain threshold and degree of allodynia. Notably, both responders and non-responders experienced meaningful reductions in the size of the painful area following treatment.ImplicationsThe findings warrant further investigation in a larger number of patients and in prospective trials.


2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 250-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theresa Wodehouse ◽  
Kavita Poply ◽  
Shankar Ramaswamy ◽  
Saowarat Snidvongs ◽  
Julius Bourke ◽  
...  

Background: Fibromyalgia is a chronic musculoskeletal pain condition that is often associated with sleep disturbances and fatigue. The pathophysiology of fibromyalgia is not understood, but indirect evidence suggests a central dysfunction of the nociceptive modulating system. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether quantitative sensory testing detects a change in pain thresholds in fibromyalgia patient receiving pregabalin treatment. Methods: A total of 25 patients were recruited for the study and received routine pregabalin, but only 14 patients completed the treatment. Assessment of pressure pain thresholds and changes in conditioned pain modulation using ischaemic pain as a conditioning stimulus were measured at baseline and every 4 weeks for 12 weeks. Fibromyalgia impact questionnaire, PainDETECT and SF-12 were also completed. Results: Patients with fibromyalgia demonstrated a less-efficient conditioned pain modulation at baseline. An efficient conditioned pain modulation was observed at 1 month and this was maintained until the final visit. Pressure pain thresholds (PPTs) showed a significant improvement from baseline. Patients also reported a similar magnitude of improvements in PainDETECT, fibromyalgia impact questionnaire (FIQ) and its impact on daily life and change in outcome for SF-12. Conclusion: This pilot study reports an increase in PPTs and improved conditioned pain modulation response after commencing pregabalin, which was maintained at 12 weeks, and this was supported by positive pain scores. Pregabalin is a licenced treatment for fibromyalgia in Europe, and its response to central sensitisation, particularly ‘dynamic responses’, has not been reported. We conclude that pregabalin has the potential to reduce peripheral and central sensitisation in patients with fibromyalgia, as measured using quantitative sensory testing.


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