Background: Now, a days myofascial trigger points are tremendously occurring and become a stressful part of nearly any person at any time in a lifetime. This study compares the effects of ischemic compression pressure with spray and stretch technique to treat active myofascial trigger points of the trapezius muscle in patients with neck pain. Methodology: A comparative interventional study was conducted at Dow University of Health Sciences from December 2016 and May 2017. Seventy patients (35 in each group) with active myofascial trigger points of trapezius were randomly assigned to group A (ischemic compression pressure) and group B (vapocoolant spray and stretch technique). Baseline and last session assessment of pain intensity, pain pressure tolerance, cervical range of motion and functional disability were measured through numerical pain-rating scale, algometer, goniometer and neck disability index, respectively. Results: Both groups showed significant improvement in all dependent variables of study which were neck pain, cervical range of motion and pain pressure tolerance (p-value<0.05). Group A showed greater improvement in pain intensity (p-value 0.015), pressure pain threshold (p-value 0.000) and cervical range of motion flexion, left side flexion and right-side flexion (p-value 0.002, 0.000 & 0.004) than group B. Conclusion: Both ischemic compression pressure & spray and stretch technique deactivated trigger points of upper fibers trapezius muscle in patients with neck pain, but the ischemic compression pressure was superior to the spray and stretch technique.

BACKGROUND Kendall’s approach is used to test the muscles strength and to determine the correct alignment of the muscle fibers. The major causes of back pain are work related problem, mechanical stress on muscles and faulty postures, which leads to core muscle weakness particularly rectus abdominis or may cause DRA. Thus the study aims to identify a causal relationship between low back pain and rectus abdominis muscle weakness using Kendall’s grading scale. STUDY DESIGN Cross Sectional Study SAMPLING TECHNIQUE Non-probability convenience sampling technique METHODOLOGY 142 (men 33.80% and women 66.20%) participants with low back pain were recruited in the study. The Kendall grading scale test the strength of muscles of the upper and lower rectus abdominis muscles among the participants while self-administered questionnaire was used to identify the nature of the back pain. RESULT Sperman’s rho coefficient of correlation was applied to find out the cause effective correlation between the two variables, result shows no significant cause effective correlation between the upper and lower back pain and lower rectus abdominis muscles weakness (P>0.05) with r= 0.065 and r=0.031respectively. CONCLUSION Although core muscle weaknesses are the source of back pain but no significant cause effective correlation exist between the two variables in this study.