Article

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the validity and preference for
assessing pain magnitude with electrocutaneous testing (ECT) compared to the
visual analogue scale (VAS) and Borg CR10 scale in men and women with cervical
radiculopathy of varying sensory phenotypes. An additional purpose was to
investigate ECT sensory and pain thresholds in men and women with cervical
radiculopathy of varying sensory phenotypes. This is a cross-sectional study of
34 patients with cervical radiculopathy. Scatterplots and linear regression were
used to investigate bivariate relationships between ECT, VAS and Borg CR10
methods of pain magnitude measurement as well as ECT sensory and pain thresholds.
The use of the ECT pain magnitude matching paradigm for patients with cervical
radiculopathy with normal sensory phenotype shows good linear association with
arm pain VAS (R(2) = 0.39), neck pain VAS (R(2) = 0.38), arm pain Borg CR10 scale
(R(2) = 0.50) and neck pain Borg CR10 scale (R(2) = 0.49) suggesting acceptable
validity of the procedure. For patients with hypoesthesia and hyperesthesia
sensory phenotypes, the ECT pain magnitude matching paradigm does not show
adequate linear association with rating scale methods rendering the validity of
the procedure as doubtful. ECT for sensory and pain threshold investigation,
however, provides a method to objectively assess global sensory function in
conjunction with sensory receptor specific bedside examination measures.

Langue : ANGLAIS