Pain complaint threshold in relation to pain of cardiac infarction.

Though the sensitivity of the patient to noxious stimulation has long been recognized as an important factor in relation to symptom production, its quantitative assessment has received little attention. While it is common for clinicians to express an opinion on the sensitivity of the patient, usually when surprised by an apparent excess or absence of pain, such opinions are almost invariably unsupported by any evidence of the patient's threshold of pain complaint. That such differences in pain sensitivity as expressed by the threshold of pain complaint can be quantitated meaningfully in relation to the pain of cardiac infarction is the theme of this paper.