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Quick Discrimination of A(delta) and C Fiber Mediated Pain Based on Three Verbal Descriptors

BACKGROUND: A(δ) and C fibers are the major pain-conducting nerve fibers, activate only partly the same brain areas, and are differently involved in pain syndromes. Whether a stimulus excites predominantly A(δ) or C fibers is a commonly asked question in basic pain research but a quick test was lack...

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Autores principales: Beissner, Florian, Brandau, Amadeus, Henke, Christian, Felden, Lisa, Baumgärtner, Ulf, Treede, Rolf-Detlef, Oertel, Bruno G., Lötsch, Jörn
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2010
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2944851/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20886070
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0012944
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author Beissner, Florian
Brandau, Amadeus
Henke, Christian
Felden, Lisa
Baumgärtner, Ulf
Treede, Rolf-Detlef
Oertel, Bruno G.
Lötsch, Jörn
author_facet Beissner, Florian
Brandau, Amadeus
Henke, Christian
Felden, Lisa
Baumgärtner, Ulf
Treede, Rolf-Detlef
Oertel, Bruno G.
Lötsch, Jörn
author_sort Beissner, Florian
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: A(δ) and C fibers are the major pain-conducting nerve fibers, activate only partly the same brain areas, and are differently involved in pain syndromes. Whether a stimulus excites predominantly A(δ) or C fibers is a commonly asked question in basic pain research but a quick test was lacking so far. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Of 77 verbal descriptors of pain sensations, “pricking”, “dull” and “pressing” distinguished best (95% cases correctly) between A(δ) fiber mediated (punctate pressure produced by means of von Frey hairs) and C fiber mediated (blunt pressure) pain, applied to healthy volunteers in experiment 1. The sensation was assigned to A(δ) fibers when “pricking” but neither “dull” nor “pressing” were chosen, and to C fibers when the sum of the selections of “dull” or “pressing” was greater than that of the selection of “pricking”. In experiment 2, with an independent cohort, the three-descriptor questionnaire achieved sensitivity and specificity above 0.95 for distinguishing fiber preferential non-mechanical induced pain (laser heat, exciting A(δ) fibers, and 5-Hz electric stimulation, exciting C fibers). CONCLUSION: A three-item verbal rating test using the words “pricking”, “dull”, and “pressing” may provide sufficient information to characterize a pain sensation evoked by a physical stimulus as transmitted via A(δ) or via C fibers. It meets the criteria of a screening test by being easy to administer, taking little time, being comfortable in handling, and inexpensive while providing high specificity for relevant information.
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spelling pubmed-29448512010-09-30 Quick Discrimination of A(delta) and C Fiber Mediated Pain Based on Three Verbal Descriptors Beissner, Florian Brandau, Amadeus Henke, Christian Felden, Lisa Baumgärtner, Ulf Treede, Rolf-Detlef Oertel, Bruno G. Lötsch, Jörn PLoS One Research Article BACKGROUND: A(δ) and C fibers are the major pain-conducting nerve fibers, activate only partly the same brain areas, and are differently involved in pain syndromes. Whether a stimulus excites predominantly A(δ) or C fibers is a commonly asked question in basic pain research but a quick test was lacking so far. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Of 77 verbal descriptors of pain sensations, “pricking”, “dull” and “pressing” distinguished best (95% cases correctly) between A(δ) fiber mediated (punctate pressure produced by means of von Frey hairs) and C fiber mediated (blunt pressure) pain, applied to healthy volunteers in experiment 1. The sensation was assigned to A(δ) fibers when “pricking” but neither “dull” nor “pressing” were chosen, and to C fibers when the sum of the selections of “dull” or “pressing” was greater than that of the selection of “pricking”. In experiment 2, with an independent cohort, the three-descriptor questionnaire achieved sensitivity and specificity above 0.95 for distinguishing fiber preferential non-mechanical induced pain (laser heat, exciting A(δ) fibers, and 5-Hz electric stimulation, exciting C fibers). CONCLUSION: A three-item verbal rating test using the words “pricking”, “dull”, and “pressing” may provide sufficient information to characterize a pain sensation evoked by a physical stimulus as transmitted via A(δ) or via C fibers. It meets the criteria of a screening test by being easy to administer, taking little time, being comfortable in handling, and inexpensive while providing high specificity for relevant information. Public Library of Science 2010-09-23 /pmc/articles/PMC2944851/ /pubmed/20886070 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0012944 Text en Beissner et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Beissner, Florian
Brandau, Amadeus
Henke, Christian
Felden, Lisa
Baumgärtner, Ulf
Treede, Rolf-Detlef
Oertel, Bruno G.
Lötsch, Jörn
Quick Discrimination of A(delta) and C Fiber Mediated Pain Based on Three Verbal Descriptors
title Quick Discrimination of A(delta) and C Fiber Mediated Pain Based on Three Verbal Descriptors
title_full Quick Discrimination of A(delta) and C Fiber Mediated Pain Based on Three Verbal Descriptors
title_fullStr Quick Discrimination of A(delta) and C Fiber Mediated Pain Based on Three Verbal Descriptors
title_full_unstemmed Quick Discrimination of A(delta) and C Fiber Mediated Pain Based on Three Verbal Descriptors
title_short Quick Discrimination of A(delta) and C Fiber Mediated Pain Based on Three Verbal Descriptors
title_sort quick discrimination of a(delta) and c fiber mediated pain based on three verbal descriptors
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2944851/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20886070
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0012944
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