Quantitative sensory threshold testing in patients with multiple sclerosis

Cutaneous thresholds for vibratory and thermal stimuli were quantitated at the index finger and great toe of twelve patients with definite multiple sclerosis. Nine of 12 (75%) patients had abnormalities to either modality, especially at the great toe, where 48% of vibratory and 17% of thermal thresholds were abnormal. Of ten patients undergoing somatosensory evoked potential (SSEP) testing, 8 (80%) had abnormal median and 9 (90%) had abnormal tibial studies. While more experience is needed to determine the sensitivity of quantitative sensory threshold testing in this application, this simple, noninvasive technique appears to correlate both with clinical and SSEP findings.