Central sensitization and secondary hyperalgesia
Patients with neuropathic pain do not only show negative symptoms (i.e. a sensory deficit) related to the impairment of somatosensory pathways. Instead, they also show, paradoxical positive symptoms (ongoing pain, hyperalgesia and allodynia), indicating an increased responsiveness of nociceptive pathways. A prominent positive sign of neuropathic pain is increased sensitivity to noxious mechanical stimulation (mechanical or pinprick hyperalgesia). At present, there is no reliable and objective laboratory toolto assess these changes in the neural responsiveness to mechanonociceptive input. The mechanisms underlying these positive symptoms are different from those underlying the negative symptoms, and involve activity-dependent changes in both the peripheral and the central nervous system. Some patients can have a severe impairment without positive symptoms, while other patients can have a mild impairment but severe positive symptoms.
The mechanical hyperalgesia observed in patients with neuropathic pain is very similar to the mechanical hyperalgesia that can be induced by the sustained activation of nociceptors in healthy volunteers ("secondary hyperalgesia"). There is convincing evidence that mechanical hyperalgesia results from a facilitation of nociceptive transmission at the level of the spinal cord, i.e. central sensitization.
In an attempt to develop a biomarker for central sensitization, we recently conducted a study in which we recorded pinprick evoked brain potentials (PEPs) in the area of experimentally induced secondary mechanical hyperalgesia in healthy volunteers. We showed that when pinprick stimuli are applied in the area of secondary mechanical hyperalgesia, PEPs were significantly increased as compared to the responses elicited by stimulation of normal skin. Moreover, in a second study, we showed that this enhancement of PEPs is long lasting and follows the same time course as the mechanical hyperalgesia. These promising results suggest that the recording of PEPs could be used as a diagnostic tool to assess the positive symptoms of neuropathic pain.
Researchers involved