Articles: pain-measurement.
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As more dentists diagnose and treat the patient with temporomandibular disorders, muscle palpation has been recognized as a valuable diagnostic method. But this method was depended on sensibility and experience of the operator. The purpose of this study was to establish the quantification of muscle palpation by new pressure pain threshold apparatus. ⋯ The females showed lower PPT than the males. 2. No difference of PPT between right and left sides was recognized in normal subject, but the significant difference in the patient. 3. PPT of the normal subjects were significantly higher in the posterior temporal M. than the other sites and lower in the superficial portion of masseter M. than the other sites.
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Altogether 553 children (195 first graders, mean age 6.8 years, and 358 third graders, mean age 8.7 years) participated in the development of a self-report measure to assess the intensity of children's pain. The first step was the derivation, from children's drawings of facial expressions of pain, of 5 sets of 7 schematic faces depicting changes in severity of expressed pain from no pain to the most pain possible. With the set of faces that achieved the highest agreement in pain ordering, additional studies were conducted to determine whether the set had the properties of a scale. ⋯ The final study checked, with 6-year-old children, the test-retest reliability of ratings for recalled experiences of pain. Overall, the faces pain scale incorporates conventions used by children, has achieved strong agreement in the rank ordering of pain, has indications that the intervals are close to equal, and is treated by children as a scale. The test-retest data suggest that it may prove to be a reliable index over time of self-reported pain.
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Comparative Study
Rheumatoid arthritis: determination of pain characteristics and comparison of RAI and VAS in its measurement.
The purposes of this study were to determine pain characteristics in female patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and to determine the relationship between the outcome of the Ritchie Articular Index (RAI) and pain intensity as measured by the visual analogue scale (VAS). The sample consisted of 30 female patients with a definite diagnosis of RA and a functional capacity of class II. The results indicated that the pain fluctuated during the day. ⋯ A high correlation r = 0.86 (P less than 0.01) was found between the scores of RAI and present pain on the VAS. This finding suggests that the pain in RA is associated with the hyperalgesic state induced by the inflammatory condition associated with RA. There was no significant correlation between blood tests like ERS, WBC and VAS or RAI.