Assessment of Pain Response in Capsaicin-Induced Dynamic Mechanical Allodynia Using a Novel and Fully Automated Brushing Device

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Dynamic mechanical allodynia is traditionally induced by manual brushing of the skin. Brushing force and speed have been shown to influence the intensity of brush-evoked pain. There are still limited data available with respect to the optimal stroke number, length, force, angle and speed. Therefore, an automated brushing device (ABD) was developed, for which brushing angle and speed could be controlled to enable quantitative assessment of dynamic mechanical allodynia.