Influence of surface anesthesia on the pressure pain threshold measured with different-sized probes

Transcutaneous pressure with pressure probes of arbitrary diameters have been commonly used for measuring the threshold and magnitude of muscle pain, yet this procedure lacks scientific validation. To examine the valid probe dimensions, we conducted physiological experiments using 34 human subjects....

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Bibliographic Details
Published inSomatosensory & motor research Vol. 22; no. 4; pp. 299 - 305
Main Authors Takahashi, Ken, Taguchi, Toru, Itoh, Kazunori, Okada, Kaoru, Kawakita, Kenji, Mizumura, Kazue
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published England Informa UK Ltd 01.12.2005
Taylor & Francis
Subjects
Administration, Cutaneous
Adult
Anesthesia, Local
cutaneous pain
Double-Blind Method
Electric Stimulation
Female
Humans
Lidocaine - pharmacology
Male
mechanical pain
Mechanoreceptors - drug effects
Middle Aged
Muscle pain
Muscle, Skeletal - innervation
Pain Threshold - drug effects
Physical Stimulation
Pressure
pressure pain test
Skin - innervation
Thermosensing - drug effects
transcutaneous pressure
transdermal lidocaine
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Summary:Transcutaneous pressure with pressure probes of arbitrary diameters have been commonly used for measuring the threshold and magnitude of muscle pain, yet this procedure lacks scientific validation. To examine the valid probe dimensions, we conducted physiological experiments using 34 human subjects. Pin-prick pain, pressure pain threshold (PPT) to pressure probes of various diameters, heat pain threshold, and electrical pain threshold of deep tissues were measured before and after application of surface lidocaine anesthesia to the skin surface over the brachioradial muscle in a double-blinded manner. The anesthesia neither affected PPT with larger probes (diameters: 1.6 and 15 mm) nor increased electric pain threshold of deep structures, whereas it diminished pain count in pin-prick test and PPT with a 1.0 mm diameter probe, suggesting that mechanical pain thresholds measured with 1.6 and 15 mm probes reflect the pain threshold of deep tissues, possibly muscle. Pain thresholds to heat did not change after application of the anesthesia. These results suggest that larger pressure probes can give a better estimation of muscular pain threshold.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-2
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-1
content type line 23
ISSN:0899-0220
1369-1651
DOI:10.1080/08990220500420475