T rigger points are irritable, hard “knots” within a muscle that may cause pain over a large area, leading to difficulty performing everyday tasks. When a trigger point is touched, it hurts and can also cause pain in nearby areas (see illustration). When a person has painful muscles and trigger points, it is sometimes called myofascial pain syndrome. Common locations for these problems are the ...

BACKGROUND Latent trigger points in the upper trapezius muscle may disrupt muscle movement patterns and cause problems such as cramping and decreased muscle strength. Because latent trigger points may spontaneously become active trigger points, they should be addressed and treated to prevent further problems. In this study we compared the short-term effect of kinesiotaping versus friction massa...

BACKGROUND Extreme heat is a public health challenge. The scarcity of directly comparable studies on the association of heat with morbidity and mortality and the inconsistent identification of threshold temperatures for severe impacts hampers the development of comprehensive strategies aimed at reducing adverse heat-health events. OBJECTIVES This quantitative study was designed to link temper...

INTRODUCTION The skin resistivity (SkR) measurement is commonly recommended for acupoints measurement, but for trigger points (TrPs) only one study is available. The purpose of the study was to evaluate SkR for latent TrPs compared to non-TrPs and the surrounding tissue. MATERIAL AND METHODS Forty-two healthy volunteers with unilateral latent upper trapezius TrPs (12 men, 30 women) aged 21-23...

OBJECTIVE To determine overall handgrip strength (HGS), we assessed the short-term change of HGS after trigger point injection (TPI) in women with muscular pain in the upper extremities by comparison with established pain scales. METHODS The study enrolled 50 female patients (FMS with MPS group: 29 patients with combined fibromyalgia [FMS] and myofascial pain syndrome [MPS]; MPS group: 21 pat...

OBJECTIVES The aim of this report is to investigate Mycobacterium abscessus infections at a rural clinic and carry out a surveillance program to determine the extent and source of these infections. METHODS The authors conducted an active surveillance investigation of 36 patients who had visited the clinic since 1 July 2008. Clinical specimens were collected from the patients and an envirnment...

Trigger point injection is a simple procedure that is widely performed for relieving pain. Even though there are several complications of trigger point injection, myositis ossificans has not been documented as one of its complications. We treated a patient who suffered from painful limitation of elbow motion and this was caused by myositis ossificans between the insertions of brachialis and sup...