FMRI of spinal and supra-spinal correlates of temporal pain summation in fibromyalgia patients.

ABSTRACT: Fibromyalgia syndrome (FM) is a debilitating chronic pain condition, which afflicts primarily females. Although the etiology of this illness is not completely understood, FM pain is thought to rely on enhanced pain sensitivity maintained by central mechanisms. One of these mechanisms is central pain amplification, which is characterized by altered temporal summation of second pain (TSSP). Here we use a TSSP paradigm and functional MRI (fMRI) of the spinal cord, brainstem, and brain to noninvasively examine the central nervous system contributions to TSSP in FM patients and normal controls (NC). Functional MRI of pain-free female adults (N = 15) and FM patients (N = 14) was conducted while brief, repetitive heat pain stimuli (0.33 Hz) were applied to the thenar eminence of the hand (C6 derm

SUBMITTER: Bosma RL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4783193 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature