Heat Pain Ratings, Offset Analgesia, and CPM Effect
NRS, Pain, pain
HEAT
For application of contact heat, the Pathway Pain & Sensory Evaluation System with a 3 × 3 cm ATS-thermode (Medoc, Israel) was used with a baseline temperature of 32 °C and temperature ramps of 8°/s. The thermode was shifted between stimulations.To obtain heat pain intensity ratings, 5-s heat stimuli at 44, 45, 46, 47, and 48 °C were applied to the lateral upper right and left arm in random order. NRS ratings were averaged over the two arms [Offset analgesia was assessed as described previously [Conditioned pain modulation (CPM) was measured using an established protocol [