Thoracic spinal postures and mobility in patients with cervicogenic headache versus asymptomatic healthy controls: A longitudinal study.

Introduction: Studies analyzing postures and mobility of the thoracic spine in the context of cervicogenic headache are missing. Insight in these parameters is needed since the cervical and thoracic spine are biomechanically related.

Objective: To compare self-perceived optimal and habitual postures, active-assisted maximal range of motion, and repositioning error of the upper-thoracic and lower-thoracic spine between a cervicogenic headache-group and matched healthy control-group before and after a 30 min-laptop-task.

Methods: A non-randomized longitudinal design was used to compare thoracic postures and mobility between 18 participants with cervicogenic headache (29-51 years) and 18 matched healthy controls (26-52 years). Outcomes were: self-perceived optimal and habitual postures, active-assisted maximal range of motion, and repositioning error of the upper-thoracic and lower-thoracic spine evaluated in sitting with a 3D-Vicon motion analysis system.

Results: Habitual upper-thoracic postures in the cervicogenic headache-group were significantly ( = .04) less located toward the maximal range of motion for flexion compared to the control-group, self-perceived optimal upper-thoracic posture was significantly ( = .004) more extended in the cervicogenic headache-group compared to the control-group, and self-perceived optimal lower-thoracic posture could not be reestablished in the cervicogenic headache-group after the laptop-task ( = .009).

Conclusion: Thoracic postures differ between a cervicogenic headache-group and control-group. These differences were detected by expressing the habitual thoracic posture relative to its maximal range of motion, and by analyzing the possibility of repositioning the thoracic spine after a headache provoking activity. Longitudinal studies are needed to determine the contribution of these musculoskeletal dysfunctions to the pathophysiology of cervicogenic headache.