Contact heat evoked potentials in normal subjects

Laser-evoked potentials are widely used to investigate nociceptive pathways. The newly developed contact heat stimulator for evoking brain response has the advantages of obtaining reliable scalp potentials and absence of cutaneous lesions. This study aimed to identify the most appropriate stimulation site with consistent cortical responses, and to correlate several parameters of the contact heat evoked potentials (CHEPs) with age, gender, and body height in normal subjects. CHEPs were recorded at Cz with a contact heat stimulator (Medoc, Israel) in 35 normal controls. The subjects were asked to keep eyes open and remain alert. The baseline temperature was 32 degrees C, and stimulation peak heat intensity of 51 degrees C was applied to five body sites: bilateral forearm, right dorsum hand, right peroneal area, and right dorsum foot. Reproducible CHEPs were recorded more frequently when stimulated at volar forearm (62.5%) than at the lower limbs (around 40%). The first negative peak latency (N1) was 370.1 +/- 20.3 ms, first positive peak latency (P1) was 502.4 +/- 33.0 ms, and peak to peak amplitude was 10.2 +/- 4.9 microV with stimulation of the forearm. Perceived pain intensity was not correlated with the presence or amplitude of CHEPs. No gender or inter-side differences were observed for N1 latency and N1-P1 amplitude. Also, no correlation was noted between N1 and age or body height. These results support future clinical access of CHEPs as a diagnostic tool.