Thermal Sensory Thresholds in Hemiplegic Patients Measured with Quantitative Sensory Test

Hasuk Bae, Eungeol Sim, Tae-Sik Yoon, Jung-Min Lee, Sung-Min Kim*

Corresponding author (eungeol@hotmail.com)

Copyright ⓒ 2009. Ewha Womans University School of Medicine. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Published Online: Mar 31, 2009

Abstract

Objectives

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.

Methods

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.

Results

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

Conclusion

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

Keywords: Quantitative sensory test; Thermal sensory analyzer; Hemiplegia