MRE Could Provide A Definitive Diagnosis For People With Muscle Pain, Study Shows

"Additional investigation is necessary, but our findings in this direct study provide a strong basis to be suspicious that MRE technology can identify changes in muscle temper and stiffness that could previously single be identified by physical examination by a physician or a therapist," says Jeffrey Basford, M.D., Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic specialist in pertaining to physics medicine and rehabilitation and an first cause of the study. "Prior to these tools and materials, we did not have a social diagnostic test for myofascial pain syndrome."

An MRE employs support MRI equipment with a few modifications, and works through . measuring the wavelength of vibrations sent through the tissues. A vibrating metal platter is placed on the patient causing muscles to lessen and stiffen. When this occurs, researchers can measure the elasticity of muscles and descry abnormal hardening of tissues, which in myofasical distress syndrome can cause pain.

The MRE technique is subsistence applied to the diagnosis of other diseases, of that kind as liver disease and could moreover be used to diagnose breast cancer and other tumors, that tend to be harder than the surrounding normal tissue.

Myofascial pain syndrome is at a past period confused with fibromyalgia, but the two conditions are clinically different. Fibromyalgia is a inveterate condition typically characterized by widespread disquietude in muscles, ligaments and tendons, in the manner that well as fatigue and multiple affectionate points. Myofascial pain syndrome, is a additional localized pain that is associated by trigger point tenderness. A trigger text is a small lump in a horde of tight muscle that, when pressed, triggers a reproducible exemplar of referred pain.

"In the past, myofasical pain syndrome has been to a high degree difficult to diagnose. These new findings may be the next step instead of a diagnosis and in the what is yet to be may help to refine treatment options," Dr. Basford says.

In more chronic cases of myofascial pain, combinations of physical therapy and trigger point injections are needed to soothe pain. In addition, the condition is at times treated with the "spray and direction" technique, which involves spraying the muscle and trigger state with a coolant and then slowly stretching the muscle.

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Other Mayo Clinic collaborators embrace Kai-Nan An, Ph.D.; Sabine Bensamoun, Ph.D.; Qingshan Chen; and Jeffrey Thompson, M.D.