Fig 1.
Example of image manipulations of study participants’ non-dominant hand.
A high-resolution photograph of each participant’s hand was computer manipulated to provide images between 75% and 125% of actual size. Twelve hand images were presented to the participants in ascending and descending order on a computer screen at a pre-specified distance while their own hands remained hidden. The participants were asked to identify the image that was identical in size to their own hand.
Table 1.
Characteristics of study participants.
Fig 2.
Average (SD) matched hand images by FM participants and HC at baseline and during tonic mechanical pain.
While matched hand images of FM participants were significantly smaller than HC at baseline, both groups’ image sizes decreased during application of tonic mechanical pain (p < .001). This change in matched hand images was not significantly different between groups (p > .05).
Fig 3.
Pearson product moment correlations demonstrated a significant negative association between clinical pain of FM patients and their matched hand image size at baseline (p = .04).
The perception of decreased hand size was associated with increased clinical FM pain.