Abnormal responses to electrocutaneous stimulation in fibromyalgia
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1Department of Rheumatology, St. Vincent's Hospital, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Objective:
As disturbed nociception may be relevant to the pathogenesis of fibromyalgia, nonnoxious electrocutaneous stimulation was used as a tool to investigate nociceptive status.
Methods:
Perception threshold and pain tolerance were studied in the upper limbs of 10 patients with fibromyalgia and 10 healthy volunteers.
Results:
Perception threshold did not differ between the groups but the marked reduction in pain tolerance found in patients with fibromyalgia was accompanied by spread and persistence of dysesthesiae.
Conclusion:
The upper limbs of patients with fibromyalgia resembled regions of secondary hyperalgesia, which may imply that perturbation of central nociceptive mechanisms is involved in the pathogenesis of this syndrome.