Patients with Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain of 3-6-Month Duration Already Have Low Levels of Health-Related Quality of Life and Physical Activity.

Purpose Of Review: To determine the level of physical activity and health-related quality of life in patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain of 3-6-month duration who have not been diagnosed or treated before.

Recent Findings: Low levels of quality of life and physical activity have been reported for patients with musculoskeletal pain with a duration of longer than 6 months. This study assessed the levels of quality of life and physical activity at the beginning stage of chronic musculuskeletal pain.

Comparison of high-power pain threshold ultrasound therapy with local injection in the treatment of active myofascial trigger points of the upper trapezius muscle.

Objective: To compare the effects of high-power pain threshold ultrasound (HPPTUS) therapy and local anesthetic injection on pain and active cervical lateral bending in patients with active myofascial trigger points (MTrPs) of the upper trapezius muscle.

Design: Randomized single-blinded controlled trial.

Setting: Physical medicine and rehabilitation department of university hospital.

Effect of treatment on trigger points.

Patients with muscle pain complaints commonly are seen by clinicians treating pain, especially pain of musculoskeletal origin. Myofascial trigger points merit special attention because its diagnosis requires examinations skills and its treatment requires specific techniques. If undiagnosed, the patients tend to be overinvestigated and undertreated, leading to chronic pain syndrome.

The sensitivity and specificity of the Slump and the Straight Leg Raising tests in patients with lumbar disc herniation.

Background: An accurate and specific diagnosis prevents the recurrences of low back pain and chronic spinal pain. The physical examination is the most useful tool to diagnosis. The examiner must aim to determine the exact tissue that pain arises from to make the specific diagnosis.

High-power pain threshold ultrasound technique in the treatment of active myofascial trigger points: a randomized, double-blind, case-control study.

Objective: To study what effects a high-power, pain-threshold, static ultrasound technique applied to acute myofascial trigger points of the upper trapezius has on pain and on active cervical lateral bending.

Design: Double-blind randomized trial.

Setting: Physical therapy unit of a private general hospital.