Latent Myofascial Trigger Points are Associated With an Increased Antagonistic Muscle Activity During Agonist Muscle Contraction

Guidelines for Recognition, Assessment and Treatment of Pain

“…Trigger point pressure : Manual treatment of trigger points can have beneficial effects, however in healthy human subjects, mechanical stimulation of trigger points induces central sensitization and antagonist muscle activity . Manual treatment of trigger points should be complimentary to other pain treatments …”

Chronic Refractory Myofascial Pain: Characteristics of Patients who Self-select Long-term Management with Electrical Twitch-Obtaining Intramuscular Stimulation

“…The inability of chronic pain patients to continue to exhibit progressive, cumulative increase in immediate improvement in range of motion and progressive, cumulative immediate and/or dramatic pain reduction with increasing number of treatments may also be related to reduce efficiency of reciprocal inhibition. This results in delayed and incomplete muscle relaxation following exercise, disordered fine movement control, and unbalanced muscle activation [30]. Increased capacity for re-injury, need for pain relief and/or need for increased range of motion explains why patients self-select to remain in eToims therapy for long periods.…”

Active Trigger Points in the Cervical Musculature Determine the Altered Activation of Superficial Neck and Extensor Muscles in Women With Migraine

“…22 However, these studies included latent TrPs, but not active TrPs, which limit the clinical relevance of their data since latent TrPs are not related to clinical pain complaints. Ibarra et al observed increased muscle activity at latent TrPs in an antagonist muscle (i.e., posterior deltoid muscle) during shoulder flexion task.…”

“…Yet, it is well described that patients with migraine exhibit more active TrPs, those which reproduce the migraine attack when stimulated, 17 in the cranio-cervical muscles compared to subjects without headache. [20][21][22] No previous study has investigated the potential influence of active TrPs in the neck musculature on electromyographic activity of superficial neck flexor and extensor muscles during the CCFT in individuals with migraine. [20][21][22] No previous study has investigated the potential influence of active TrPs in the neck musculature on electromyographic activity of superficial neck flexor and extensor muscles during the CCFT in individuals with migraine.…”