British journal of anaesthesia
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Multicenter Study
Conditioned pain modulation identifies altered sensitivity in extremely preterm young adult males and females.
Conditioned pain modulation is a potential biomarker for risk of persistent pain. As early-life experience can alter subsequent somatosensory processing and pain response, we evaluated conditioned pain modulation after extremely preterm birth. ⋯ Cold conditioning evoked inhibitory modulation in the majority of young adults and identified a subgroup of extremely preterm females with increased baseline sensitivity. Early-life experience and sex/gender should be considered when evaluating persistent pain risk with conditioned pain modulation.