A comparison of skin rolling and tender points as a diagnostic test for fibromyalgia

Objective: To examine the utility of skin rolling as a clinical test for fi bromyalgia syndrome [FMS]. The potential objective advantage over the stand ard tender point [TeP] examination is that skin rolling requires no respons e from the patient. Methods: Twenty-seven subjects with FMS were compared with 33 healthy norma l controls [HNC]. Five examiners, all blinded to the diagnosis group, teste d each of the subjects for both skin rolling and TePs data. Results: The average skin rolling scores obtained by each of the five exami ners from all subjects were comparable, suggesting an adequate inter-rater reliability. Skin rolling scores were marginally higher for FMS patients th an for HNC [P = 0.06] while the comparable TeP data was highly significant [P < 0.001]. The average skin rolling scores correlated [P < 0.001] with th e TeP count for both FMS and HNC. Conclusions: The skin rolling test may offer promise as an objective clinic al test in FMS, but its specificity against pain controls must still be det ermined.