Algorithms assessing heat and mechanical pain thresholds in experimentally inflamed skin of human study subjects are shown. The two pain testing paradigms independently examine nociceptive processing by the two major peripheral nerve fiber populations transmitting pain, i.e., non-myelinated C fibers and small myelinated A-delta fibers.

A technique is presented for the in-vivo collection of interstitial fluid samples from pertinent tissue sites (here, experimentally inflamed skin) for the measurement of biochemicals mediating pain and inflammation.