Fibromyalgia Tender Spots - What and Where Are They?

Currently, it is not a diagnostic test to confirm the presence of fibromyalgia. Usually diagnosis is reached after discarding. In 1990, the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) has established diagnostic criteria for fibromyalgia. You must have these in order to have an "official" medical diagnosis of fibromyalgia.

Generalized for a period of three months less pain
Pain in all four quadrants of the body, ie the left and right side of the body, above and below the waist and neck in the front or the back and bottom of the breast back
Pain in 11 of the 18 specified tender points, as shown in palpation (a technique that involves pressing a suspicious site to your nail bleaches) with at least one point in each quadrant
Pain is defined in this context as eight pounds of discomfort when pressure is applied to the tender point
If you have widespread pain for more than three months and health care of 11 or more tender points on physical examination, you may be given a diagnosis of fibromyalgia.
Tender points are areas of muscle or other soft tissues are extremely sensitive to the pressure stimulation. Usually found in areas where the muscles attach to bone or ligament - but not the joints themselves - and the pain radiates from them.

British French and German scientists documented in the medical literature of the nineteenth century seem exaggerated tenderness of the muscles and soft tissues to the touch. They called spinal irritation, Charcot hysteria or morbid affection.

The nine pairs of points are sensitive in the following areas:

The right rear of the left neck or just below the hairline
The left or right of the front of the neck above the collarbone side between C5 and C7 vertebrae
The left or right side of the chest just below the clavicle (in the second rib)
The left or right to the top of the back side where the neck and shoulder are in the trapezius muscle
The left or right of the spine in the upper back side, between the shoulder blades
Or on the left or right arm just below the elbow
The left or right of your lower back just below the waist side
On the right of the left buttocks or below the hips
The fat pad on the right or left patella
According to Daniel J. Wallace, MD, "hot spots can occur anywhere on the body, the ACR criteria are simply the 18 most common points." (Mondell, MD, DL 2005 Living with Fibromyalgia New York: McGraw-Hill ..., pp. 10-11)

Biopsies and electromagnetic scanning technology show that energy production is significantly reduced in these areas, but do not know why.

Some doctors disagree with tender point measurements. Considered arbitrary because pain thresholds vary from person to person and from day to day. They also want to know what to do with a person who is 10 to 18 instead of the expected 11. If you have many other common symptoms would not be diagnosed with fibromyalgia? This was actually the consensus of the doctors who originally designed the tender point criteria.