Pressure Pain Mappings: Development and Applications

Musculoskeletal disorders are a major problem resulting in loss of work ability for the individuals and are an economical burden for society. While methods like magnetic resonance imaging and ultrasound are adequate for visualizing bones and muscles, these methods do not provide any information of the changes in deep structure sensitivity to pain. A new method aiming at directly measure and visualize pain spatial changes can be a way to localize painful areas.

The pressure pain threshold (PPT) is the minimum required mechanical pressure at which a person feels a sensation of pain from a certain location. This provides a semi-objective measurement of pain providing a quantifiable value of pain sensitivity. By covering the surface of a muscle using a high number of measurement locations it becomes possible to generate a PPT map visualizing the pain topography of the muscle.