Scand J Rheumatol. 1999 ; 28(2): 88-93.

Pain threshold in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and effect of manual oscillations.

Dhondt W, Willaeys T, Verbruggen LA, Oostendorp RA, Duquet W.

Department of Postgraduate Education in Manual Therapy, Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium.

Using a pressure algometer pain threshold (PT) measurements were carried out in the paraspinal area as well as at the knee and ankle joints in 30 adults with active rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and in 30 healthy adults. The group of RA patients was then randomly divided in two. In 15 RA patients a manual oscillation technique was applied at T12 and L4 for 12 minutes. The 15 other patients were resting. Immediately after the experimental procedure the PT was measured again at the same points in all patients. The RA patients showed a significantly (p < 0.05) lower PT than the healthy adults at all investigated points, which suggests that in RA certain changes arise in the peripheral and central nociceptive processing system, as mentioned in the literature. In the second measurement session for the RA patients the PT was significantly higher (p<0.05) after manual oscillations than after rest, at the paraspinal area of T6, L1 and L3. Further research into the long-term effect of repeated manual oscillation sessions is warranted.