Sympathetic nervous system effects in the hands following a grade III postero-anterior rotatory mobilisation technique applied to T4: A randomised, placebo-controlled trial

Using Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging to Determine if Cerebral Hemodynamic Responses to Pain Change Following Thoracic Spine Thrust Manipulation in Healthy Individuals

“…Thoracic manipulation can be performed without significant movement of the head or skull and thus allows for reliable pretest and posttest imaging without motion artifacts confounding the data. Second, manual therapy to the thoracic spine may also induce sympathoexcitatory effects beyond segmental distribution, 32,58,62 giving rise to the notion that pain reduction [ research report ] associated with manipulation may not be segmentally specific. Finally, this project aimed to establish a testing protocol and to identify cerebral structures that may be associated with hypoalgesia following thrust manipulation to the thoracic spine by incorporating noxious stimuli in tandem with functional imaging premanipulation and postmanipulation.…”

Investigation of the Effects of a Centrally Applied Lumbar Sustained Natural Apophyseal Glide Mobilization on Lower Limb Sympathetic Nervous System Activity in Asymptomatic Subjects

“…36, 37 In addition, posterior superior iliac spine palpation was used for further corroboration of the location. [44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57] Recent evidence supports manual therapists as having acceptable intratester reliability for identifying and locating spinal levels. 48,49 After standardized protocol, the participants' plantar surfaces of the toes of both feet were cleaned with alco-wipe, and SC electrodes were placed bilaterally on the second and third toes, corresponding to L4 peripheral nerve distribution.…”

Visceral responses to spinal manipulation

“…Five papers which satisfied the inclusion criteria were identified (Table 5). Examples of autonomically-mediated responses to spinal manipulation include sweating, which has been measured indirectly by skin conductance (see for example, Moulson and Watson, 2006;Jowsey and Perry, 2010), static pupil diameter (Briggs and Boone, 1988) and edge light pupil cycle time (Gibbons et al, 2000).…”

“…The studies of skin conductance suggest that a sympathoexcitatory effect can be induced in the lower limbs with lumbar spinal manipulation (Perry et al, 2011), and perhaps in the hands following mobilization of the thoracic region (Jowsey and Perry, 2010). The study by Perry et al (2011) compared two interventions, a 'high-velocity low amplitude grade V manipulation' of the lumbar spine, and a set of lumbar extension exercises (25 subjects per cohort).…”

“…Both interventions produced a transient and statistically significant increase in skin conductance, with the response to manipulation being significantly larger than the response to exercise. The study by Jowsey and Perry (2010) compared the effects of a 'grade III postero-anterior rotator joint mobilization technique applied to the T4 vertebra' with the effects of sustained pressure to the same region (18 subjects per cohort). The sustained pressure resulted in no changes in hand skin conductance whereas the mobilization was accompanied by a slight increase in skin conductance in one hand (p = 0.034 per one way ANOVA) but not the other; these calculations based on percentage change from baseline.…”