Review
Biology and therapy of fibromyalgia. Evidence-based biomarkers for fibromyalgia syndrome
1 Northwest Rheumatology Specialists, Elk Grove Village, IL 60007, USA
2 Department of Internal Medicine, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40536, USA
3 Center for Clinical Rheumatology Research, 82166 Graefelfing/Munich, Germany
4 Department of Medicine, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX 78229, USA
5 Department of Internal Medicine, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI 48105, USA
Arthritis Research & Therapy 2008, 10:211 doi:10.1186/ar2443
Published: 8 August 2008Abstract
Researchers studying fibromyalgia strive to identify objective, measurable biomarkers that may identify susceptible individuals, may facilitate diagnosis, or that parallel activity of the disease. Candidate objective measures range from sophisticated functional neuroimaging to office-ready measures of the pressure pain threshold. A systematic literature review was completed to assess highly investigated, objective measures used in fibromyalgia studies. To date, only experimental pain testing has been shown to coincide with improvements in clinical status in a longitudinal study. Concerted efforts to systematically evaluate additional objective measures in research trials will be vital for ongoing progress in outcome research and translation into clinical practice.
