Study on validity of thermal detection thresholds as an examination for evaluating vibration-induced neurophthy

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Thermal thresholds as well as pain thresholds are expected to reflect the function of A delta myelinated fibers and C unmyelinated fibers, while vibrotactile thresholds are supposed to reflect the function of A beta myelinated fibers. Hence, the present study investigated the validity of thermal threshold measurements for evaluating vibration-induced neuropathy and also suitable test conditions. Worm and cold thermal thresholds of the finger were significantly damaged in patients with hand-arm vibration syndrome compared with healthy controls, and they tended to be worse with progress of peripheral nerve impairments. The thresholds were significantly correlated with pain thresholds. Additionally the specificity for detecting nerve damages was better than that of pain thresholds. These findings indicate that thermal threshold measurement is a useful test for evaluating vibration-induced neuropathy and can be an alternative to pain threshold measurement. And suitable test conditions need changing rate of test plate temperature at 1.0 ﾟC/s, press force of finger on the plate at 0.5 N, and a support of subject's arm.