How stable are quantitative sensory testing measurements over time? Report on 10-week reliability and agreement of results in healthy volunteers

• Main Authors: Nothnagel H, Puta C, Lehmann T, Baumbach P, Menard MB, Gabriel B, Gabriel HHW, Weiss T, Musial F
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Dove Medical Press 2017
• Subjects: Quantitative Sensory Testing (QST); healthy volunteers; test-retest reliability; Intra-class correlations; Bland-Altman plot; limits of agreement; standard error of measurement; minimum detectable difference; Medicine (General); R5-920; Arctic; Norway; Tromsø; Puta; Arctic University of Norway; UiT The Arctic University of Norway
• Online Access: https://doaj.org/article/35298c6591ae41488b7c26f129abff07

Helen Nothnagel,1,2,* Christian Puta,1,3,* Thomas Lehmann,4 Philipp Baumbach,5 Martha B Menard,6,7 Brunhild Gabriel,1 Holger H W Gabriel,1 Thomas Weiss,8 Frauke Musial2 1Department of Sports Medicine and Health Promotion, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany; 2Department of Community Medicine, National Research Center in Complementary and Alternative Medicine, UiT, The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway; 3Center for Interdisciplinary Prevention of Diseases Related to Professional Activities, 4Department of Medical Statistics, Computer Sciences and Documentation, Friedrich Schiller University, 5Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, University Hospital Jena, Germany; 6Crocker Institute, Kiawah Island, SC, 7School of Integrative Medicine and Health Sciences, Saybrook University, Oakland, CA, USA; 8Department of Biological and Clinical Psychology, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany *These authors contributed equally to this work Background: Quantitative sensory testing (QST) is a diagnostic tool for the assessment of the somatosensory system. To establish QST as an outcome measure for clinical trials, the question of how similar the measurements are over time is crucial. Therefore, long-term reliability and limits of agreement of the standardized QST protocol of the German Research Network on Neuropathic Pain were tested. Methods: QST on the lower back and hand dorsum (dominant hand) were assessed twice in 22 healthy volunteers (10males and 12females; mean age: 46.6±13.0years), with sessions separated by 10.0±2.9weeks. All measurements were performed by one investigator. To investigate long-term reliability and agreement of QST, differences between the two measurements, correlation coefficients, intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs), Bland–Altman plots (limits of agreement), and standard error of measurement were used. Results: Most parameters of the QST were reliable over 10weeks in healthy volunteers: Almost-perfect ICCs were observed for heat pain threshold ...