AccessMyLibrary provides FREE access to over 30 million articles from top publications available through your library.
Create a link to this page
Copy and paste this link tag into your Web page or blog:
Expert: fibromyalgia tender point criteria flawed.(Clinical Rounds)
DESTIN, FLA. -- The tender point criteria commonly used to diagnose fibromyalgia are not useful and in fact may even explain why the disease appears to disproportionately affect women, Daniel Clauw, M.D., said at a rheumatology meeting sponsored by Virginia Commonwealth University.
According to the American College of Rheumatology's 1990 classification criteria, patients must have widespread pain and tenderness in 11 of 18 tender points in order to be diagnosed with fibromyalgia.
Yet "tender points merely represent areas of the body where everyone is more tender," explained Dr. Clauw, the executive director of the Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Center at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Fibromyalgia patients and healthy individuals were found to have different thresholds of pain in those tender points. These two groups also had different thresholds of pain in areas not thought to be tender. In addition, the cutoff of 11 out of 18 tender points is arbitrary. "We know that tenderness varies a great deal from day to day and week to week, especially in women," he said.
In clinical practice, many physicians are ...
- Tender point criteria for fibromyalgia called flawed.(Pain Medicine)
- Magazine article from: Clinical Psychiatry News Wachter, Kerri August 1, 2005 700+ words
...that the number of tender points correlates better with...likely to have achy and tender points, so the higher incidence...created by the tender point criteria, he continued. Men...widespread pain but not many tender points in many cases are given...
- Tender-point criteria for fibromyalgia flawed.(Musculoskeletal Disorders)(Brief...
- Magazine article from: Family Practice News Wachter, Kerri September 15, 2005 700+ words
...widespread pain and tenderness in 11 of 18 tender points to be diagnosed with fibromyalgia. Yet "tender points merely represent areas of the body...different thresholds of pain in those tender points. The two groups also had different...
- A conservative, cost-effective approach to fibromyalgia: researchers have...
- Magazine article from: JAAPA-Journal of the American Academy of Physicians Assistants Buesing, Abigail R. September 1, 2005 700+ words
...fatigue and several tender points on examination (see...11 of 18 specified tender points. These criteria are...10) and between tender points and childhood abuse...CFS meet the tender point criteria for FMS, (20) treatment...
- Fibromyalgia syndrome: an overview.
- Magazine article from: Physical Therapy Krsnich-Shriwise, Susan January 1, 1997 700+ words
...3) swelling in soft tissue, (4) tender points, and (5) muscle spasms or nodules...tissue.[5] The self-reported tender points, [Krsnich-Shriwise S. Fibromyalgia...are critical to the diagnosis of FS. Tender points cluster in regions around the neck...
- FOCUS ON FIBROMYALGIA.
- Magazine article from: Saturday Evening Post SerVaas, Joan March 1, 2000 700+ words
...specific diagnostic criteria involving 11 out of 18 tender points on different areas of the body, starting at...the activities of daily living. Q: What are tender points? A: Tender points in fibromyalgia are part of the diagnostic criteria...
- Recent Progress in Clinical Applications and Research in Fibromyalgia.(part 1)
- Magazine article from: Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients Bradford, Robert W. Allen, Henry W. November 1, 2001 700+ words
...stimulation at locations known as "tender points" or trigger points. [1] The most...skin blood flow were studied above tender points in 20 patients with fibromyalgia and...controls. In the skin above the five tender points examined in each subject, there was...
- Findings in fibromyalgia reported from Yale University.(Clinical report)
- Newspaper article from: Biotech Week May 6, 2009 700+ words
...experienced significantly improved tender points, pain, depression, and quality of...experienced significantly improved tender points only (p <= 0.05). The treatment...persisted at 4 weeks postintervention for tender points, pain, and quality of life, while...
- Therapy: Recent Progress in Clinical Applications and Research in Fibromyalgia...
- Magazine article from: Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients Bradford, Robert W. Allen, Henry W. January 1, 2002 700+ words
...training group the mean number of positive tender points, the mean pain threshold of the gluteal...allowed. Pain levels and positive tender points were assessed using the visual analogue...p< .001). The number of tender points decreased from 16.0 to 11.8 (p...