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Published on: December 19, 2016
Quantitative sensory studies in complex regional pain syndrome type 1/RSD
A J Tahmoush1, R J Schwartzman, J L Hopp
1Department of Neurology, MCP Hahnemann University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19102,USA. albert.tahmoush@drexel.edu
The Clinical Journal of Pain
|January 12, 2001
Summary
Complex regional pain syndrome type I (CRPS-I) patients exhibit thermal allodynia due to significantly decreased cold and heat pain thresholds. This suggests sensory physiology abnormalities in CRPS-I, causing non-painful stimuli to be perceived as painful.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Pain Research
- Clinical Medicine
Background:
- Complex regional pain syndrome type I (CRPS-I) is characterized by thermal allodynia, where non-painful thermal stimuli evoke pain.
- The underlying sensory physiology abnormalities in CRPS-I remain incompletely understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the sensory physiology of thermal allodynia in CRPS-I patients.
- To test the hypothesis that allodynia in CRPS-I results from altered thermal sensory thresholds.
Main Methods:
- Quantitative sensory testing was performed on 16 CRPS-I patients and 16 controls.
- Thermodes applied controlled warming and cooling stimuli to assess warm detection, cold detection, heat-evoked pain, and cold-evoked pain thresholds.
- Student t-tests were used for statistical comparison of thresholds between groups.
Main Results:
- CRPS-I patients demonstrated significantly decreased cold-evoked pain thresholds (p <0.001) compared to controls.
- Heat-evoked pain thresholds were also significantly reduced in CRPS-I patients (p <0.05).
- Warm and cold detection thresholds did not differ significantly between CRPS-I patients and controls.
Conclusions:
- Thermal allodynia in CRPS-I is associated with diminished cold-evoked and heat-evoked pain perception.
- These findings indicate a resetting of thermal pain thresholds in CRPS-I, leading to the perception of pain from non-noxious stimuli.
