MUSCLE PAIN - ANIMAL AND HUMAN EXPERIMENTAL AND CLINICAL-STUDIES

The search for the identification of the sensory apparatus encoding mu scle pain sensation in humans is recounted. Basic neurophysiologic ani mal studies, leading to a description of slowly conducting afferent fr om muscle and definition of high threshold polymodal muscle nociceptor s, and pioneer psychophysic human studies together with recent microne urographic experiments in humans are described. The phenomena of muscl e pain broad localization and distant referral are discussed, and clin ical implications are extrapolated to interpret muscle pain as a local izing sign of mononeuropathy or radiculopathy. The identification of h uman muscle nociceptors has defined the scientific standard to test em erging clinical descriptions having muscle pain as a symptom. (C) 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.