Abstract
The aim of this study was to investigate the test-retest reliability of quantitative sensory testing (QST) and mechanical sensitivity mapping of the periauricular skin. Twenty volunteers (10 men, 10 women) participated in two sessions at intervals of one week. Cold and warm detection threshold (CDT&WDT), cold and heat pain threshold (CPT&HPT), mechanical detection and pain threshold (MDT&MPT), pressure pain threshold (PPT) and two-point discrimination (2PD) were measured at five sites: bilateral subauricular and postauricular sites (LA, RA, LB, RB) and the dorsum of left hand (control). Pressure stimulation was applied at each of the four periauricular test sites. The test-retest reliability of the QST data implied fair to excellent agreement as evaluated by the intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC; all >0.4) for different days. There was no difference between each side in the QST parameters and mechanical sensitivity mapping (P ≥ 0.057). Significant differences between subauricular and postauricular sites were shown for WDT and PPT (P ≤ 0.028). NRS scores of mechanical sensitivity mapping showed significant effects of gender, site and point (P ≤ 0.040). QST and mechanical sensitivity mapping can be considered to be a reliable technique to assess somatosensory function of the periauricular skin.
Highlights
For mechanical sensitivity mapping in the masseter muscle region and temporomandibular joint (TMJ) region with a new quantitative palpometer has an excellent reliability and can assess the spatial aspects of mechanical sensitivity in a specific anatomical region13
The results of this study showed that QST and mechanical sensitivity mapping of the periauricular skin in healthy adults are stable and with a sufficient test-retest reliability to allow clinical www.nature.com/scientificreports point [1,1] [1,2] [1,3] [2,1] [2,2] [2,3] [3,1] [3,2] [3,3]
The somatosensory function of other sites around the external ear are dominated by three other nerves, such as the auricular branch of the vagus nerve (ABVN), the auriculotemporal nerve (ATN), and the lesser occipital nerve (LON) which were not the focus of the present study
Summary
For mechanical sensitivity mapping in the masseter muscle region and temporomandibular joint (TMJ) region with a new quantitative palpometer has an excellent reliability and can assess the spatial aspects of mechanical sensitivity in a specific anatomical region. There is so far no information on QST or mechanical sensitivity mapping of the periauricular skin. It is not known whether the previous methods of the QST and mechanical sensitivity mapping can be applied to provide representative characteristics of the periauricular skin sensitivity. This study aimed to investigate the test-retest reliability of QST of the periauricular skin and the surface of left hand (control), and the mechanical sensitivity mapping of the periauricular skin. An additional aim was to test for gender and site-to-site differences in the QST and mechanical sensitivity mapping of the periauricular skin
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