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Aletheia

State, Not Scar · claim VASO-C083 · Observation rung · The phenomenon at the fingertip

Rheumatology's fibromyalgia-era 18-site tender-point exam has been applied to community samples.

Not featured in the current editionAI-extractedorigin: report 2026-09-09-inbox-vasocomputation-031907; split from VASO-C059 (2026-09-09-verify-vasocomputation-052024)

source anchor

[p. 17]

“universal (medians 6 in women, 3 in men)”

Evidence

Supports· moderateVASO-E062

Croft 1994: the 18-site tender-point count applied in a community general-practice sample

what the source states
The source is a two-stage cross-sectional study set in "Two general practices in north west England", drawing a stratified random sample of adults from age–sex registers, in which 177 selected responders underwent tender-point examination with the outcome "Tender point count (0 to 18) grouped into four categories", the highest (11 or more) corresponding to the ACR fibromyalgia criteria.
what we infer
This is the primary the founding essay gestured at: the fibromyalgia-era 18-site exam administered outside the clinic. Note that the examined subsample was chosen on reported pain complaints, so it is a community-based but pain-selected sample.
limitations
  • Abstract only retrieved; full text not shown.
  • Examined subsample (177 of 250 selected) was chosen on the basis of reported pain complaints.
P. Croft (1994)AI-verified citation

an honest empty state

This claim is in the ledger but not in the current edition's featured set. Nothing here has been assessed — that absence is information, not an oversight.

Still missing: plain-language gloss, credibility assessment, diagnosticity assessment, strongest objection, what would change our mind. A claim gains them when an edition features it and the edition's adopted assessment supplies the full treatment — a decision the panel reviews, not a field anyone flips.