Changes in heart rate do not correlate with changes in pain intensity in emergency department patients.

The objective of this study was to determine the correlation, if any, between change in heart rate (HR) and change in pain in Emergency Department (ED) patients. This was a prospective, observational study of a convenience sample of patients presenting to an academic ED with pain. Heart rate and pain intensity (using a 100-mm visual analog scale) were determined at time of triage, 30 min post pain treatment, and at discharge. The correlation between change in HR and change in pain was determined using the Pearson correlation coefficient. Nine hundred seventy-five patients were enrolled in the study. The Pearson rho for 1143 correlations between change in HR and change in pain was 0.08 (95% CI 0.03-0.13). This study suggests that there is a poor correlation between change in pain intensity and change in heart rate among ED patients with acute pain.

[1]  C. Celeste Johnston,et al.  Acute pain response in infants: a multidimensional description , 1986, Pain.

[2]  J. Ducharme.  Acute pain and pain control: state of the art. , 2000, Annals of emergency medicine.

[3]  J. Bartfield,et al.  Heart rate response to intravenous catheter placement. , 2003, Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine.

[4]  P. Tanabe,et al.  A prospective study of ED pain management practices and the patient's perspective. , 1999, Journal of emergency nursing: JEN : official publication of the Emergency Department Nurses Association.

[5]  K. Craig,et al.  Biobehavioral responses to acute pain in adolescents with a significant neurologic impairment. , 1999, The Clinical journal of pain.

[6]  A. Peretz,et al.  Reliability and reproducibility of visual analogue scale and numeric rating scale for therapeutic evaluation of pain in rheumatic patients. , 1991, The Journal of rheumatology.

[7]  K. A. Michael,et al.  Effect of analgesic treatment on the physiological consequences of acute pain. , 1994, American journal of hospital pharmacy.

[8]  J. Loeser,et al.  Bonica's Management of Pain , 2001 .

[9]  G. Hampf.  Influence of cold pain in the hand on skin impedance, heart rate and skin temperature , 1990, Physiology & Behavior.

[10]  J. Miller,et al.  Procedural Pain in Newborn Infants: The Influence of Intensity and Development , 1999, Pediatrics.

[11]  S. Coffman,et al.  Nursing assessment and management of pain in critically ill children. , 1997, Heart & lung : the journal of critical care.

[12]  P. Paris,et al.  Pain Management in Emergency Medicine , 1987 .

[13]  R. Hamill-Ruth,et al.  Evaluation of pain in the critically ill patient. , 1999, Critical care clinics.

[14]  R. Evans.  Clinical Practice of Emergency Medicine , 1996 .

[15]  Y. Sato,et al.  Varying changes in heart rate produced by nociceptive stimulation of the skin in rats at different temperatures , 1976, Brain Research.

[16]  F. S. Cole,et al.  A controlled clinical trial of local anesthesia for lumbar punctures in newborns. , 1991, Pediatrics.

[17]  Mottola Ca.  Measurement strategies: the visual analogue scale. , 1993, Decubitus.