De Rui Marina, Marini Ida, Bartolucci Maria Lavinia, Inelmen Emine Meral, Bortolotti Francesco, Manzato Enzo, Gatto Maria Rosaria Antonella, Checchi Luigi, Sergi Giuseppe
Department of Medicine - DIMED, Geriatrics Division, University of Padova, Padova, Italy.
Department of Biomedical and Neuromotor Sciences (DIBINEM), Orthodontics and Gnathology Division, "Alma Mater Studiorum" University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
Gerodontology. 2015 Dec;32(4):274-80. doi: 10.1111/ger.12117. Epub 2014 Feb 10.
The aim of this study was to assess the impact of age on pressure pain threshold (PPT) of cervico-facial muscles in healthy geriatric subjects and to investigate the role of gender and dominance on nociception.
Musculo-skeletal pain is common in the elderly, but being subjective, it risks to be underdiagnosed and undertreated. A useful method for assessment of local pain is determining PPT through pressure algometry. Ageing process seems to increase PPTs, but reference values for the assessment of pain in geriatric subjects are lacking.
In this study, PPTs in temporal muscle, masseter, sternocleidomastoid, occipital and splenius capitis of 97 healthy elderly subjects were measured using Fischer algometer. Participants were divided by age in four classes (years 65-69; 70-74; 75-79; ≥80).
Women had lower PPTs in all muscles compared with men. Comparing PPTs obtained from the right and the left side, no significant differences were recorded neither in men nor in women. When dividing subjects by age class and education, in both genders no significant differences were observed in PPTs among the groups, neither in the right nor in the left sides.
In conclusion, the present study reports reference PPT values for the cervico-facial muscles that can be applied to a population of healthy elderly subjects. After 65 years of age, further ageing does not influence PPTs in cervico-facial muscles whereas female gender has lower PPTs.
本研究旨在评估年龄对健康老年受试者颈面部肌肉压痛阈（PPT）的影响，并探讨性别和优势侧在伤害感受中的作用。
肌肉骨骼疼痛在老年人中很常见，但由于其主观性，存在诊断不足和治疗不足的风险。一种评估局部疼痛的有用方法是通过压力痛觉计测定PPT。衰老过程似乎会增加PPT，但缺乏用于评估老年受试者疼痛的参考值。
在本研究中，使用Fischer痛觉计测量了97名健康老年受试者颞肌、咬肌、胸锁乳突肌、枕肌和头夹肌的PPT。参与者按年龄分为四类（65 - 69岁；70 - 74岁；75 - 79岁；≥80岁）。
与男性相比，女性所有肌肉的PPT均较低。比较左右两侧获得的PPT，男性和女性均未记录到显著差异。按年龄组和教育程度对受试者进行划分时，无论右侧还是左侧，两组性别在PPT方面均未观察到显著差异。
总之，本研究报告了可应用于健康老年受试者群体的颈面部肌肉PPT参考值。65岁以后，进一步衰老不会影响颈面部肌肉的PPT，而女性的PPT较低。
