Wittwer Amrei, Krummenacher Peter, La Marca Roberto, Ehlert Ulrike, Folkers Gerd
*Collegium Helveticum, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
*Collegium Helveticum, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland Brainability LLC, Zurich, Switzerland Department of Psychology, Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
Pain Med. 2016 Jun;17(6):1131-6. doi: 10.1093/pm/pnv085. Epub 2016 Jan 13.
Self-reports of pain are important for an adequate therapy. This is a problem with patients and infants who are restricted in providing an accurate verbal estimation of their pain. Reliable, real-time, economical, and non-invasive physiological correlates might contribute to a more comprehensive description of pain. Salivary alpha-amylase constitutes one candidate biomarker, which reflects predominantly sympathetic nervous system alterations under stressful conditions and can be measured non-invasively. The current study investigated the effects of acute heat pain on salivary alpha-amylase activity.
Heat pain tolerance was measured on the non-dominant forearm. Participants completed visual analog scales on pain intensity and unpleasantness. Saliva samples were collected directly after pain induction.
Twenty-seven healthy volunteers were recruited for this study.
While salivary alpha-amylase levels correlated positively with intensity and unpleasantness ratings in response to acute heat pain stimuli, there was no corresponding association with pain tolerance.
Salivary alpha-amylase is suggested to be an indirect physiologic correlate of subjective heat pain perception. Future studies should address the role of salivary alpha-amylase depending on the origin of pain, the concerned tissue, and other pain assessment methods.
疼痛的自我报告对于适当的治疗很重要。对于那些在准确口头评估疼痛方面受到限制的患者和婴儿来说，这是一个问题。可靠、实时、经济且无创的生理相关指标可能有助于更全面地描述疼痛。唾液α-淀粉酶是一种候选生物标志物，它主要反映应激条件下交感神经系统的变化，并且可以无创测量。本研究调查了急性热痛对唾液α-淀粉酶活性的影响。
在非优势前臂测量热痛耐受性。参与者完成关于疼痛强度和不愉快程度的视觉模拟量表。在疼痛诱导后直接收集唾液样本。
本研究招募了27名健康志愿者。
虽然唾液α-淀粉酶水平与急性热痛刺激后的强度和不愉快程度评分呈正相关，但与疼痛耐受性没有相应关联。
唾液α-淀粉酶被认为是主观热痛感知的间接生理相关指标。未来的研究应根据疼痛的起源、相关组织和其他疼痛评估方法来探讨唾液α-淀粉酶的作用。
