Within-session test-retest reliability of pressure pain threshold and mechanical temporal summation in healthy subjects

OBJECTIVE: To determine the absolute and relative intra-rater within-session test-retest reliability of pressure pain threshold (PPT) and mechanical temporal summation of pain (TSP) at the low back and the forearm in healthy participants and to test the influence of the number and sequence of measurements on reliability metrics. METHODS: In 24 participants, three PPT and TSP measures were assessed at four sites (2 at the low back, 2 at the forearm) in two blocks of measurements separated by 20 minutes. The standard error of measurement, the minimal detectable change (MDC) and the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) were investigated for five different sequences of measurements (e.g. measurement 1, 1–2, 1-2-3). RESULTS: The MDC for the group (MDC(gr)) for PPT ranged from 28.71 to 50.56 kPa across the sites tested, whereas MDC(gr) for TSP varied from 0.33 to 0.57 out of 10 (numeric scale). Almost all ICC showed an excellent relative reliability (between 0.80 and 0.97), except when only the first measurement was considered (moderate). Although minimal differences in absolute PPT reliability were present between the different sequences, in general, using only the first measurement increase measurement error. Three TSP measures reduced the measurement error. DISCUSSION: We established that two measurements of PPT and three of TSP reduced the measurement error and demonstrated an excellent relative reliability. Our results could be used in future pain research to confirm the presence of true hypo/hyperalgesia for paradigms such as conditioned pain modulation or exercise-induced hypoalgesia, indicated by a change exceeding the measurement variability.