Evaluation of Pain İntensity and Oxidative Stress Levels in Patients with İnflammatory and non-İnflammatory Back Pain

To investigate the relationship between pain threshold and oxidative stress levels in patients with acute and chronic inflammatory or non-inflammatory back pain. A total of 137 patients were recruited for the study, including 33 acut back pain (32 lumbar disk herniation, 1 lumbar spondilosis) (16 men, 17 women), 35 with chronic back pain (33 lumbar disk herniation, 1 lumbar spondilosis, 1 sacralisation) (16 men, 19 women), 34 with ankylosing spondylitis (21 men, 13 women) (AS) and 35 without any back pain (15 men, 20 women). The visual analogue scale (VAS) was used to evaluate pain levels and algometry was used to evaluate the pain threshold in all cases. In addition, serum malondialdehyde (MDA) levels were assessed in all patients. The mean ages for groups 1, 2, 3, and 4 were 40.3p10.3, 39.9p9.7, 40.6p10.4, and 38.5p8.1 years, respectively. There was no significant difference between the ages of the groups (p=0.851) (Table 1). The VAS scores of all groups were significantly higher compared to the control group. Particularly, the acute and chronic back pain groups had significantly higher VAS scores than those of the AS group. All three back pain groups had significantly higher serum MDA levels compared to those of the control group (p