Thermal Sensory Thresholds in Hemiplegic Patients Measured with Quantitative Sensory Test

Hemiplegic patients with unilateral cerebral lesions suffer from sensory deficit as well as motor deficit. But clinical assessment of thermal sensation is one of the least reliable components of neurological examination and is difficult to quantify.

We measured thermal sensory thresholds of cold sense, warm sense, cold pain and hot pain in hemiplegic patients with thermal sensory analyzer(TSA). To investigate and quantify the thermal sensory deficit of hemiplegic patients, we compared the measurements with normal con-trols, between body regions, and between hemiplegic and sound side.

Hemiplegic patients showed impaired thermal sensory thresholds in all modalities compared to their sound side and normal controls.

Quantitative sensory test using thermal sensory analyzer can be useful to quantify the thermal sensory deficit and follow up the progress.