Heat, cold, and pressure pain thresholds following a sport-related concussion
Date
2020-07-07
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Abstract
Concussions are among the most common sport and recreational injuries. Head and neck pain are commonly reported symptoms following concussion, but pain may also occur at regions secondary to the region of primary injury suggesting central sensitization. Central sensitization may be assessed using quantitative sensory testing (QST) to quantify heat (HPT), cold (CPT), and pressure pain thresholds (PPT). Pain thresholds have shown to predict worse prognosis of whiplash associated disorder. However, changes in pain thresholds as a consequence of SRC have not been well evaluated despite acute and persistent pain commonly occurring following SRC. Here we discuss the feasibility of QST among a consecutive sample of patients aged 13-60 that were seen at the Acute Sport Concussion Clinic (ASCC) and local sport medicine clinics in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and diagnosed with SRC. Pain thresholds in patients with SRC were compared against orthopaedic injured (OI) and uninjured (UI) controls. There were no adverse reactions to QST in patients with SRC. There were no significant differences in heat, cold, and pressure pain thresholds across groups. Of interest, when looking at the data descriptively, patients with SRC had lower median HPTs and higher median CPTs than OI and UI controls as well as higher PPTs than OI controls. Further research including prospective cohort design is warranted to better understand how heat, cold, and pressure pain thresholds may be altered in patients with SRC.
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Keywords
sport-related concussion, concussion, pain thresholds, central sensitization
Citation
Johnstone, C. (2020). Heat, cold, and pressure pain thresholds following a sport-related concussion (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.