Image-based documentation of vulvodynia pain location

Abstract

Aims: Better documentation of vulvar pain is needed. We examined pain locations marked on general body and genital specific outlines among women with vulvodynia. Methods: 62 women (mean age 32.1 ± 9.5 years) with vulvodynia marked their pain on a digital genital specific outline (22 segments) and 59 of those women also marked their pain on a digital general body outline (48 segments). We used ImageJ software to determine body surface area (BSA) for each outline. Results: On the general body outline, 24/48 segments were marked; 22/22 segments were marked on the genital specific outline. There was a moderate correlation ( r = 0.43; p = 0.001) between the BSA marked on the general body outline and the BSA marked on the genital area outline. Conclusions: Findings support concurrent validity of the BSA as a measure of pain location using either outline.