Positron Emission Tomography to Measure Pain and Pain Control

Launched by NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF DENTAL AND CRANIOFACIAL RESEARCH (NIDCR) · Nov 3, 1999

Keywords

ClinConnect Summary

Regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) will be measured while normal subjects, patients with post-operative pain, and patients with neuropathic abnormalities of pain sensation are exposed to a battery of somatosensory stimuli that activate known pathways subserving touch, temperature and pain sensations. We have performed a series of studies on the genetics of pain, which assessed sensitivity (via subjective ratings) to a series of warm and painfully hot thermal pulses. Subjects ranged from insensitive (i.e. rating 49 degrees C as a 0.8 versus a 10 on a 10 point scale), yet mathematically we c...

Gender

ALL

Eligibility criteria

• • INCLUSION CRITERIA
• • Healthy Normal Volunteers between the ages of 18 and 80 years
• • Certain Chronic Pain Patients
• • EXCLUSION CRITERIA
• • Structural or Functional Brain Defects
• • Metallic Surgical Implants
• • Chronic Drug Treatments