Cross-cultural adaptation to the Thai language of the neuropathic pain diagnostic questionnaire (DN4).

OBJECTIVE: To cross-culturally adapt the neuropathic pain diagnostic questionnaire (DN4) to Thai language MATERIAL AND METHOD: Phase 1: Forward and backward translation followed by assessment of semantic equivalence. Phase 2: Testing of the questionnaire in 30 neuropathic pain patients who were seen and diagnosed by experts, followed by modifications to produce a final version. RESULTS: All the Thai translated pain descriptors except 'tingling' got high percentages of understanding among neuropathic pain patients in the first round of testing. After some adaptation of the Thai word for 'tingling' had been made, the new translated word was retested, and all subjects doing the retest understood the word very well. CONCLUSION: The Thai DN4 questionnaire was systematically translated and validated. This offers a simple Thai neuropathic pain diagnostic tool for clinical use.

The orientation of facet joints and transverse articular dimension in degenerative spondylolisthesis.

OBJECTIVES: To determine whether the orientation of facet joints, facet tropism and transverse articular dimension could play a role in degenerative spondylolisthesis. MATERIAL AND METHOD: MRI study of L4-5 level of twenty degenerative spondylolisthesis and age-matched twenty control group were included. The orientation of facet joints, transverse articular dimension (TAD) and cosine facet orientation of TAD were measured with two independent observers. RESULTS: The facet orientation of more than 43 degrees and cosine facet orientation of TAD less than 7.4 were statistically significant for developing degenerative spondylolisthesis (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The facet orientation of degenerative spondylolisthesis patients was more sagittal orientation than the the control group, and the cosine facet orientation of TAD was also less than the control group.