Relationship between Neuromuscular Mechanosensitivity and Chronic Neck Pain in Guitarists: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Valeria Estefanía Aguilar Rojas,Daniel Pecos-Martín,Alexander Achalandabaso-Ochoa,Patricia Martinez-Merinero,Arisandy Flores Pluma,Susana Nuñez-Nagy,Tomás Gallego-Izquierdo,Rubén Fernández-Matías

doi:10.3390/ijerph18052673

Abstract

Musicians frequently complain of musculoskeletal pain due to high mechanical demands, with the cervical spine being the most affected. Increased neuromuscular mechanosensitivity due to repetitive mechanical stress over time has been described in neck pain patients. Nevertheless, the association between musculoskeletal pain and neuromuscular mechanosensitivity in musicians is unknown. Therefore, the aim of this study was to analyze the relationship between neuromuscular tissue mechanosensitivity and neck pain in guitarists. Guitarists with chronic neck pain (n = 70) and without pain (n = 70) were enrolled. Pain and disability were measured by the visual analogue scale and the Neck Disability Index, respectively. The pressure pain threshold (PPT) was bilaterally measured for the upper trapezius and median nerve. Finally, the Upper limb neural test one (ULNT1) was bilaterally measured. The analyses included a 2-by-2 mixed analysis of variance, pairwise comparisons with Bonferroni correction, linear regression model, and multiple linear regression. Our data showed that chronic neck pain guitarists have a lower PPT at all locations compared to healthy guitarists. They also showed a bilateral main effect for pain for ULNT1 compared to healthy guitarists. These results were not affected by the mediator variables. Finally, a relationship between upper trapezius PPT and median nerve PPT was found.

Highlights

Research Institute of Physical Therapy and Pain, Alcalá University, 28871 Alcalá de Henares, Spain; Department of Health Sciences, Universidad de Jaén, 23071 Jaén, Spain
Our results are in agreement with those of López-de-Uralde-Villanueva et al [12], as we found that, compared to healthy controls, patients with chronic neck pain showed a significant increase in mechanosensitivity measured as a decrease in pressure pain threshold (PPT) at the upper trapezius muscle and at the median nerve
In our group of guitarists with neck pain, we found a significant, positive relation between PPTs in the upper trapezius and median nerve, while no association was found between PPTs in the upper trapezius and median nerve, and the ULNT1

Summary

Introduction

The association between musculoskeletal pain and neuromuscular mechanosensitivity in musicians is unknown. The aim of this study was to analyze the relationship between neuromuscular tissue mechanosensitivity and neck pain in guitarists. Guitarists with chronic neck pain (n = 70). The pressure pain threshold (PPT) was bilaterally measured for the upper trapezius and median nerve. Our data showed that chronic neck pain guitarists have a lower PPT at all locations compared to healthy guitarists. They showed a bilateral main effect for pain for ULNT1 compared to healthy guitarists. These results were not affected by the mediator variables. A relationship between upper trapezius PPT and median nerve PPT was found

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Discussion

Conclusion