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Cervical musculoskeletal impairments in the 4 phases of the migraine cycle in episodic migraine patients

Stefano Di Antonio, L. Arendt-Nielsen, M. Ponzano, F. Bovis, P. Torelli, C. Finocchi, M. Castaldo

Cephalalgia, 2022

159 participants · 34 citations

Abstract

Objective To assess cervical musculoskeletal impairments during the 4 phases of a migraine cycle in episodic migraine patients, controlling for the presence of concomitant neck pain. Methods Differences in cervical musculoskeletal impairments were assessed during the 4 migraine phases in episodic migraine patients and compared with healthy controls controlling for concomitant neck pain. Cervical musculoskeletal impairments were assessed as follow: cervical active range of motion; flexion rotation test; craniocervical flexion test and calculation of activation pressure score; the total number of myofascial trigger points in head/neck muscles; the number of positivevertebral segments (headache’s reproduction) during passive accessory intervertebral movement; pressure pain thresholds over C1, C2, C4, C6 vertebral segments bilaterally, trigeminal area, hand, and leg. Signs of pain sensitization were assessed by evaluating mechanical pain threshold over trigeminal area and hand, pressure pain thresholds, and the wind-up ratio. The Bonferroni-corrected p-value (05/4 = 0.013) was adopted to assess the difference between groups, while a p-value of 0.05 was considered significant for the correlation analysis. Results A total of 159 patients and 52 controls were included. Flexion rotation test and craniocervical flexion test were reduced in all 4 phases of the migraine cycle versus healthy controls (p < 0.001). The number of myofascial trigger points and positive vertebral segments…

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