Activation of the descending pain modulatory system using cuff pressure algometry: Back translation from man to rat.

Background: Diffuse noxious inhibitory controls (DNIC) as measured in rat and conditioned pain modulation (CPM), the supposed psychophysical paradigm of DNIC measured in humans, are unique manifestations of an endogenous descending modulatory pathway that is activated by the application of a noxious conditioning stimulus. The predictive value of the human CPM processing is crucial when deliberating the translational worth of the two phenomena.

Methods: For CPM or DNIC measurement, test and conditioning stimuli were delivered using a computer-controlled cuff algometry system or manual inflation of neonate blood pressure cuffs, respectively.