title: Assessing Aδ fiber function with lidocaine using intraepidermal electrical stimulation.
abstract: The functions of small fibers can be impaired in peripheral neuropathies, and screening tests for clinical use are required. To verify whether intraepidermal stimulation (IES) is useful for assessing the functions of Adelta fibers in the superficial layer, we investigated sensory thresholds and evoked cortical responses in healthy volunteers before and after a transdermal administration of lidocaine. Pain and tactile thresholds were studied using IES and transcutaneous electrical stimulation (TS), respectively, in 10 healthy volunteers before, and 1 hour, 3 hours, and 5 hours after a local anesthesia with lidocaine. Cortical potentials evoked with IES and TS were also studied in 12 healthy volunteers before and 5 hours after the anesthesia. Although the local anesthesia had no effect on the evoked potentials or the tactile threshold for TS, it markedly increased the pain threshold and almost abolished the evoked potentials for IES. These results suggest that IES is a sensitive tool for detecting functional changes of cutaneous Adelta fibers.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Compared with other methods of stimulation used to investigate Adelta fiber function, our method is easy to apply and less invasive and can stimulate any site of the body. Therefore, it should be useful as a screening test for patients with neuropathy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Integrative Physiology, National Institute for Physiological Sciences, Okazaki, Japan. ootsuru@nips.ac.jp
authors.forename: Naofumi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Otsuru
authors.forename: Koji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Inui
authors.forename: Koya
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yamashiro
authors.forename: Takahiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Miyazaki
authors.forename: Yasuyuki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Takeshima
authors.forename: Ryusuke
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kakigi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000779:Anesthetics, Local; D004558:Electric Stimulation / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D004566:Electrodes / Q000592:standards; D004568:Electrodiagnosis / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D004817:Epidermis / Q000294:innervation* / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008012:Lidocaine; D008297:Male; D009413:Nerve Fibers, Myelinated / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D009437:Neuralgia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D010523:Peripheral Nervous System Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests
chemical_list: D000779:Anesthetics, Local; D008012:Lidocaine