Spinal cord mechanism involving the remote effects of dry needling on the irritability of myofascial trigger spots in rabbit skeletal muscle
PainSci summary of Hsieh 2011?This page is one of thousands in the PainScience.com bibliography. It is not a general article: it is focused on a single scientific paper, and it may provide only just enough context for the summary to make sense. Links to other papers and more general information are provided at the bottom of the page, as often as possible. ★★★☆☆?3-star ratings are for typical studies with no more (or less) than the usual common problems. Ratings are a highly subjective opinion, and subject to revision at any time. If you think this paper has been incorrectly rated, please let me know.
According to Dommerholt et al.: “They measured the concentrations of a variety of biochemicals, including b- endorphine, substance P, tumor necrosis factor-a, cyclo- oxygenase-2, hypoxia-inducible factor 1-alpha, inducible nitric oxide synthase, and vascular endothelial growth factor and noted that dry needling of TrPs can modulate these concentrations in a dosage dependent manner.”
original abstract†Abstracts here may not perfectly match originals, for a variety of technical and practical reasons. Some abstacts are truncated for my purposes here, if they are particularly long-winded and unhelpful. I occasionally add clarifying notes. And I make some minor corrections.
OBJECTIVE: To elucidate the neural mechanisms underlying the remote effects produced by dry needling rabbit skeletal muscle myofascial trigger spots (MTrSs) via analyses of their endplate noise (EPN) recordings.
DESIGN: Experimental animal controlled trial.
SETTING: An animal laboratory of a university.
ANIMALS: Male New Zealand rabbits (N=96) (body weight, 2.5-3.0kg; age, 16-20wk).
INTERVENTION: Animals received no intervention for neural interruption in group I, transection of the tibial nerve in group II, transection of L5 and L6 spinal cord in group III, and transection of the T1 and T2 spinal cord in group IV. Each group was further divided into 4 subgroups: animals received ipsilateral dry needling, contralateral dry needling, ipsilateral sham needling, or contralateral sham needling of gastrocnemius MTrSs.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: EPN amplitudes of biceps femoris (BF) MTrSs.
RESULTS: BF MTrS mean EPN amplitudes significantly increased (P<.05) initially after gastrocnemius verum needling but reduced to a level significantly lower (P<.05) than the preneedling level in groups I and IV with ipsilateral dry needling or contralateral dry needling, and in group II with contralateral dry needling (but not ipsilateral dry needling). No significant EPN amplitude changes were observed in BF MTrS in group III or in the control animals receiving superficial needling (sham).
CONCLUSION: This remote effect of dry needling depends on an intact afferent pathway from the stimulating site to the spinal cord and a normal spinal cord function at the levels corresponding to the innervation of the proximally affected muscle.
related content
- “Endplate potentials are common to midfiber myofacial trigger points,” David G Simons, Chang-Zern Hong, and Lois Statham Simons, Am J Phys Med Rehabil, 2002.
- “Myofascial trigger points: spontaneous electrical activity and its consequences for pain induction and propagation,” Hong-You Ge, César Fernández-de-Las-Peñas, and Shou-Wei Yue, Chin Med, 2011.
- “The myofascial trigger point region: correlation between the degree of irritability and the prevalence of endplate noise,” Ta-Shen Kuan, Yueh-Ling Hsieh, Shu-Min Chen, Jo-Tong Chen, Wei-Chang Yen, and Chang-Zern Hong, Am J Phys Med Rehabil, 2007.
These two articles on PainScience.com cite Hsieh 2011 as a source:
- Trigger Points & Myofascial Pain Syndrome — A guide to the unfinished science of muscle pain, with reviews of every theory and self-treatment and therapy option
- The Trigger Point Identity Crisis — The biological evidence that a trigger point is a lesion in muscle tissue
This page is part of the PainScience BIBLIOGRAPHY, which contains plain language summaries of thousands of scientific papers & others sources. It’s like a highly specialized blog. A few highlights:
- Effectiveness of customised foot orthoses for Achilles tendinopathy: a randomised controlled trial. Munteanu 2015 Br J Sports Med.
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- The neck and headaches. Bogduk 2014 Neurol Clin.
- Agreement of self-reported items and clinically assessed nerve root involvement (or sciatica) in a primary care setting. Konstantinou 2012 Eur Spine J.
- Effect of NSAIDs on Recovery From Acute Skeletal Muscle Injury: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Morelli 2017 Am J Sports Med.