Unilateral thumb carpometacarpal osteoarthritis:
there is more to it than joint destruction
Alessandro Chiarotto (ottoale.physio@gmail.com) is an Italian physiotherapist
who is currently completing his MSc education in the Netherlands.
He now realizes that Italy is much more beautiful than the Netherlands,
and that does not only apply to the weather.
Anyway, he and his co-workers have published a nice study in Pain Medicine,
showing bilateral localized pressure pain hypersensitivity over the hand in
individuals with unilateral thumb carpometacarpal osteoarthritis
(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23802919).
This finding suggests spinal cord sensitization mechanisms in patients with
unilateral thumb carpometacarpal osteoarthritis.
The possibility of central sensitization in osteoarthritis has been highlighted
by Pain in Motion recently (
http://www.paininmotion.be/EN/news-osteoarthritis.html),
and follows a global trend of thinking beyond muscles & joints in rheumatic pain patients.
