Fibromyalgia 18 Tender Points Chart
Along with widespread deep muscle pain it s common to feel multiple tender points too.
Fibromyalgia 18 tender points chart. Fibromyalgia fm is a long term condition that causes widespread pain throughout the body. Tender points are areas of. These pressure points are located at the following nine points of bilateral muscles. Fibromyalgia tender points are located in clusters around the neck chest.
But updated guidelines for 2010 did not require counting tender points in order to make a fibromyalgia diagnosis. These 18 points 9 pairs tend to be painful when pressed and may spread pain to other body parts. As with any diagnostic criteria especially those that cannot be based on a blood. People with fibromyalgia often feel different types of pain in their bodies.
The american college of rheumatology has charted 18 tender points. The 18 tender points associated with fibromyalgia occur in symmetrical pairs from the back of your head to your inner knees. These tender points are sometimes confused with trigger points which are associated with chronic myofascial pain. This criteria requires pain in all four quadrants of the body for at least three months and moderate pain sensitivity at a minimum of 11 of the 18 predetermined tender points.
It s been 20 years since the american college of rheumatology acr published the criteria for the classification of fibromyalgia. The primary difference between tender points and trigger points is that trigger points can produce referred pain that is they can. Fibromyalgia a chronic pain disorder is often characterized by pain in multiple tender points. Diagnosing fibromyalgia with tender points there are 18 tender points throughout the body each about the size of a penny.
Doctors used to use tender points to help them form a diagnosis. They have issued the following guidelines to doctors for diagnosing fibromyalgia. The american college of rheumatology included counting tender points in their 1990 fibromyalgia diagnostic criteria establishing that 11 of the 18 tender points had to be present and cause pain for at least three months.