Low Back Pain
Conditions
Keywords
Low back pain, Long-term potentiation, Hyperalgesia, Allodynia
Brief summary
The present study is aimed to assess the LTP-like pain amplification in chronic low back pain patients to explore the central and peripheral effect for pain LTP.
Detailed description
This study is a cross-sectional study. Two groups, including low back pain group and healthy subjects group will be arranged in this study. 50 subjects will be recruited in each group, The healthy subjects were matched for sex and age in relation to the low back pain group. Conditioning electrical stimulation (100 Hz, repeated 5 times with 10 s intervals, 500 impulses) using circular pin electrodes will be used in both groups to induce LTP-like pain amplification. The pain intensity changes to pinprick and light touch stimuli will be compared between two groups.
Interventions
OTHERChronic low back pain patients
People must have experienced low back pain for at least 3 months and have reported a minimal pain level of 30 (pain threshold) on the 0-100 pain numerical rating scale (NRS) in the last 7 days.
OTHERSubjects without chronic low back pain
These participants must not have presented episodes of low back pain for more than 7 days in the last 12 months.
Sponsors
Peking University People's Hospital
Study design
Observational model
OTHER
Time perspective
CROSS_SECTIONAL
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
20 Years to 60 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
1. Chronic low back pain patients Inclusion Criteria: * Age 21-80 years old. * People must have experienced low back pain for at least 3 months and have reported a minimal pain level of 30 (pain threshold) on the 0-100 pain numerical rating scale (NRS) in the last 7 days.
Exclusion criteria
* Age below 21 or over 80 years old. * Patients were excluded if they had taken pain medications on the day of the assessment or if they had serious spinal pathologies, such as fractures, tumors or inflammatory diseases, such as ankylosing spondylitis, nerve root compromise confirmed by clinical neurological tests or severe cardiorespiratory diseases. Those who were pregnant, patients with cancer and those with a cardiac pacemaker were also excluded. 2. Healthy volunteers. Inclusion Criteria: * Age 21-80 years old. * These participants must not have presented episodes of low back pain for more than 7 days in the last 12 months.
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Change of pain intensity to pinprick stimuli | The pinprick sensation will be measured three times before and six times after the conditioning electrical stimulation with 10 minutes interval throughout the experiment (90 minutes). | Mechanical pinprick-evoked perception was assessed by three weighted pinprick stimulators which were randomly applied in the area adjacent to the conditioned site. The subjects indicated the perceived intensity on the same visual analogue scale(VAS). |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Perception Features of conditioning electrical stimulation (CES) | All subjects will rate the pain ratings during the 50 seconds stimulation. | The subjects were asked to rate continuously the magnitude of pain induced by the 100 Hz CES using a hand-held visual analogue scale (VAS) device. These VAS ratings were sampled by a computer. The VAS ranges from 0(no sensation) to 100 (most imaginable pain) where 30 means pain threshold. |
| Change of pain intensity to light-stroking stimuli | The light-touch sensation will be measured three times before and six times after the conditioning electrical stimulation with 10 minutes interval throughout the experiment (90 minutes). | A cotton swab was used for light stroking stimuli (\ 100mN) for assessing the tactile perception around the conditioned site. |
| Change of pain intensity to single electrical stimulation (SES) | The pain ratings to SES will be measured three times before and six times after the conditioning electrical stimulation with 10 minutes interval throughout the experiment (90 minutes). | A single rectangular 1 ms constant-current electrical stimulation was applied as a homotopic electrical test stimulus using the same conditioning electrode placed at the conditioned site. |
Contacts
Primary ContactWeiwei Xia, Ph.D.
Outcome results
None listed