Analysis of the methodological quality and completeness of reporting of physiotherapy randomised controlled trials relevant to musculoskeletal conditions

Abstract

31% of participants scored above the cut-off score (40) on the CSI. Somatosensory abnormalities demonstrated by knee OA participants included significantly lower PPTs (p< 0.05) locally (knee) and remotely (forearm) compared to healthy controls, inefficient CPM (n= 24) and enhanced TS (n= 23). Lower PPTs at the forearm were found to be significantly correlated with widespread pain on the body chart (r= 0.441, p< 0.001), manual tender point count (r=−0.699, p< 0.001) and higher scores on the CSI (r= 0.513, p< 0.001). Inefficient CPM was strongly correlated with a higher number of manual tender points (r= 0.772, p< 0.001) and widespread pain (r= 0.493, p< 0.001). Conclusion(s): Alterations to pain processing were present in the majority of participants with moderate/severe knee OA, indicating the presence of pain sensitization in this cohort of physiotherapy patients. This research provides preliminary evidence associating certain QST measures with clinical pain measures. Implications: This study provides further evidence for widespread changes in pain processing accompanying moderate to severe knee OA and has implications for physiotherapy management. It also indicates that certain quick and easy clinical measures may be potentially useful for detecting pain sensitization in the clinical setting. Further research is needed to investigate the predictive value, validity and reliability of these measures in the clinic.