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Article
Allodynography: Reliability of a new procedure for objective clinical examination of static mechanical allodynia
Pain Medicine (United States)
  • Tara L. Packham, Hamilton Health Sciences
  • Claude J. Spicher, University of Fribourg
  • Joy C. MacDermid, McMaster University
  • Norman D. Buckley, McMaster University, Faculty of Health Sciences
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2020
URL with Digital Object Identifier
10.1093/pm/pnz045
Abstract

© 2019 American Academy of Pain Medicine. All rights reserved. Objective. There is a need for reliable and valid clinical assessment tools for quantifying allodynia in neuropathic pain. Allodynography has been proposed as a useful standardized procedure for clinical assessment of mechanical allodynia. This study (www.clinicaltrials.gov NCT02070367) undertook preliminary investigation of the measurement properties of allodynography, a new standardized clinical examination procedure for mapping the area of cutaneous allodynia. Methods. Persons with pain in one upper extremity after complex regional pain syndrome, a peripheral nerve injury, or who had recently experienced a hand fracture were recruited for assessment of static mechanical allodynia (based on perception of a 15g force stimulus delivered by Semmes-Weinstein monofilament #5.18 as painful) by two raters at baseline; the assessment was repeated one week later. Results. Single-measures estimates suggested inter-rater reliability for allodynography was excellent at an intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of 0.97 (N ¼ 12); test–retest reliability was also excellent at ICC ¼ 0.89 (N ¼ 10) for allodynography (P < 0.001 for both). Confidence intervals’ lower bounds confirm inter-rater reliability as excellent (0.90) but were less definitive for test–retest (0.59). Conclusions. This preliminary study supports the inter-rater and test–retest reliability of allodynography. Studies on larger samples in multiple contexts and reporting other measurement properties are warranted.

Citation Information
Tara L. Packham, Claude J. Spicher, Joy C. MacDermid and Norman D. Buckley. "Allodynography: Reliability of a new procedure for objective clinical examination of static mechanical allodynia" Pain Medicine (United States) Vol. 21 Iss. 1 (2020) p. 101 - 108
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/joy-macdermid/21/