Lesley Rao, MD

Rao is working with Dr. Simon Haroutounian on a study predicting individual response to analgesic treatment in painful diabetic neuropathy . The study is to examine whether sensory testing to determine mechanical pain threshold [MPT] or heat pain threshold [HPT] will predict the subject’s response to IV lidocaine analgesic therapy.

In addition, Rao is working with Haroutounian on the Investigation of somatosensory predictors of response to pregabalin in painful chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN). The purpose of the study is to determine the correlation between baseline mechanical pain threshold (MPT) and analgesic response (% pain reduction) after 4-week treatment with pregabalin vs. placebo in patients with painful peripheral neuropathy induced by oxaliplatin, paclitaxel, and/or docetaxel.