Measuring Pain Withdrawal Threshold using a Novel Device in Pseudo-continuous Mode

The study of pain and analgesia is an important area of biomedical research that has led to a significant number of advances in the treatment of acute and chronic pain. This study introduces a novel approach to mechanical testing of pain withdrawal of a rat hind paw to a stimulus. This systematic method involves a modified electronic esthesiometer controlled by an IDEA drive that allows for consistency in experiments. The device gives the experimenter computer control of the step size and velocity of approach of the probe stimulus. We discuss here some of the limitations in the current techniques used and illustrate how this device will result in reduced errors during an experiment. The standard method primarily involves manually raising the probe towards the animal. The data presented herein shows how the computer controlled pseudo-continuous mode of operation is effective in determining the pain threshold with a lesser deviation from the mean