• Next Meeting - DATE & LOCATION TO BE ANNOUNCED
• Please note that this website/group does not sell any products
• Sheila Alder radio interview (Re: overcoming adversity)
• New developments in the diagnosis of fibromyalgia syndrome: Say goodbye to tender points? - Jun/09

The fibromyalgia tender points

To qualify for a diagnosis of fibromyalgia, patients must ache all over and have tenderness in at least 11 of these 18 spots when 4 kgs. of pressure are applied.

Location of FMS tender points:

1. Attachment of neck muscles at the base of the skull
2. Midway between neck and shoulder
3. Muscle over upper inner shoulder blade
4. 2 cms below side bone at elbow
5. upper outer buttock
6. Hip bone
7. Just above knee on inside
8. Lower neck in front
9. Edge of upper breast bone

The American College of Rheumatologists 1990 diagnostic criteria don't say that the aching has to be continuous, just chronic. You can hurt almost anywhere from FMS, not just in the 18 diagnostic tender points which were chosen because they are the most consistent from patient to patient. Anyone who aches all over, particularly if they have some of the other commonly associated symptoms, should try to find a doctor who is knowledgeable about FMS and can perform a tender point examination.

If you have FMS, the chance that any of your full siblings inherited the predisposition is 50% (assuming it is autosomal dominant, which looks like the likely mode). Half-siblings will either be 50% or 0% depending on whether or not you share the parent who passed on the trait to you.

David A. Nye MD Midelfort Clinic, Eau Claire, WI

Honours for this website

• Hope Award for this website Jul/07
  To be eligible for the Hope Award, websites must:
• offer accurate information and resources for patients
• encourage sufferers to search for new treatments and hope
• refuse to accept inadequate medical advice and doctors who tell us to "learn to live with it"!

At the Annual American College of Rheumatology/ARHP Scientific Meeting in Orlando, FL (Oct/03) .... Physicians from Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center in Chicago, IL, presented the Fibromyalgia Information website as the number two internet site among the top websites recognized as The Best Fibromyalgia Websites. The study selected the top twenty websites out of over 900,000 listed on Yahoo and Google, to critically assess using specific evaluation criteria.

The criteria included: accuracy for medical content, up-to-date quality information, links to other resources, alternative treatment options, user friendliness, and whether the websites should be recommended to both patients and medical professionals.

The Canadian Medical Association Journal has published this information in the February 3, 2004 issue online at www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/170/3/326 and at www.cmaj.ca/cgi/reprint/170/3/326.pdf for the PDF of the printed copy.

This website is designed and maintained by Woman to Woman Computing.

Fibromyalgia Support - Ottawa West
Email coordinator:
S.C. Alder
Oct/09