title: Adult norms of the perceptual threshold of touch (PTT) in the hands and feet in relation to age, gender, and right and left side using transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation.
abstract: There is a lack of standardized and quantifiable measures of touch function, for clinical work. Furthermore, it is not possible to make accurate diagnostic judgments of touch function before normative values are estimated. The objectives of this study were to establish adult norms of the perceptual threshold of touch (PTT) for the hands and feet according to age and gender and to determine the effect of right/left side, handedness, height, weight, and body mass index (BMI) on the PTT. The PTT was assessed by using a high-frequency transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulator (Hf/TENS) with self-adhesive skin electrodes in 346 adults. The PTT was identified as the level registered in mA at which the participants perceived a tingling sensation. The PTT for all participants was a median of 3.75 mA (range 2.50-7.25) in the hands and a median of 10.00 (range 5.00-30.00) in the feet. With increasing age an increase of the PTT was found. Men reported higher PTT than women. The right hand had higher PTT than the left. Handedness, height, weight, and BMI did not affect the PTT. Adult norms of the PTT in the hands for age, gender, and right/left side are presented for four age groups. The present study's estimate of the PTT in the hands could be used as adult norms. Adult norms for the feet could not be estimated because the PTT values in the feet showed a great variance.
authors.affiliation: Department of Geriatric Medicine, Danderyd Hospital, Danderyd, Sweden. elsy.eek@sll.se
authors.forename: Elsy
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Eek
authors.forename: Lotta Widén
authors.initials: LW
authors.lastname: Holmqvist
authors.forename: Disa K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Sommerfeld
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D015992:Body Mass Index; D005260:Female; D005528:Foot / Q000294:innervation*; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006225:Hand / Q000294:innervation*; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009460:Neurologic Examination / Q000592:standards*; D012016:Reference Values; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012684:Sensory Thresholds; D012737:Sex Factors; D013548:Sweden; D014110:Touch; D055698:Touch Perception; D004561:Transcutaneous Electric Nerve Stimulation / Q000592:standards*; D055815:Young Adult