A study published in Pain identified four diagnostic tools for CRPS in adult populations. However, no diagnostic tools were found for children (0-21 years of age) or adolescents. Also, there are no tools for screening CRPS. A systematic review of articles in databases was conducted with the principal aim to recognize diagnostic and screening tools for CRPS (a severely painful condition) and summarize their study quality, feasibility, and measurement properties.

The secondary aim was recognition of diagnostic and screening tools utilized for the pain syndrome in pediatrics. Studies were incorporated if: (i) the tool was a diagnostic or screening tool, (ii) the tool incorporated self-report or physical assessment, and (iii) the main aim of the assessment was determining the measurement properties or feasibility of usage.

With the help of Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies (QUADAS-2) tool, the data of each study were extracted for quality indicators. No screening tools were detected for any of the age group. Notably, 4 diagnostic tools validated for use in adults were observed: (a) Budapest Research Criteria, (b) the Veldman criteria, (c) Budapest Criteria, and (d) International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) criteria.

Since no screening tools for CRPS are available, all individuals having suspected disease should be examined promptly by a clinician to undergo diagnostic evaluation and suitable treatment. For adults with CRPS, clinicians should prefer to use the Budapest Criteria for diagnosis in combination with clinical judgement, and researchers should prefer to use the Budapest Research Criteria. For pediatric CRPS, no diagnostic tools were found to be validated for usage. In such cases, a pediatric pain specialist should diagnose.

Further investigations should develop a diagnostic tool for pediatrics and screening tools for both adults and pediatrics, concluded the study authors.