title: Age-related and sex-related changes in perfusion index in response to noxious electrical stimulation in healthy subjects.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Even though pain is a subjective phenomenon, its objective evaluation in humans is important because subjects requiring pain evaluation may be unable to describe their pain intensity because of decreased awareness or impaired cognitive function. Previous reports indicate that the perfusion index (PI), which is calculated from pulse oximeter waveforms, has some utility in assessing pain. However, age-associated and sex-associated differences in change of PI have hitherto not been evaluated for assessment of pain. Therefore, we aimed to estimate the utility of age-related differences in PI change among healthy volunteers subjected to electrical stimulation.
  
  
  METHODS
  We measured PI and pulse rate in 70 healthy volunteers exposed to gradually increasing electrical stimulation. The subjects were classified into four groups, ie, young men, young women, aged men, and aged women. Stimulation was stopped when subjects reached their pain tolerance threshold. The average PI and pulse rate were calculated 10 seconds before and after electrical stimulation and compared across the four groups. Changes in PI and pulse rate were analyzed using the paired t-test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The PI was significantly decreased in response to pain stimulation in young men (P<0.0001), young women (P=0.0002), and aged men (P=0.0158). However, aged women failed to show significant changes in PI before or after stimulation. The pulse rate was not significantly altered in any of the groups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  PI may be an independent parameter reflecting the perception of noxious stimuli and could be used for objective evaluation of pain perception in healthy volunteers, except when it is used for pain evaluation in elderly women.
authors.affiliation: Osaka University Medical School, Suita, Japan.
authors.forename: Toshiki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nishimura
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, Suita, Japan.
authors.forename: Aya
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nakae
authors.affiliation: Department of Pain Medicine, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Suita, Japan.
authors.forename: Masahiko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shibata
authors.affiliation: Toyonaka Municipal Hospital, Toyonaka, Japan.
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mashimo
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, Suita, Japan.
authors.forename: Yuji
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fujino
keywords: age difference; noxious stimuli; objective evaluation; perfusion index; sex difference