Session Information
Title: Fibromyalgia, Soft Tissue Disorders, Regional and Specific Clinical Pain Syndromes: Research Focus
Session Type: Abstract Submissions (ACR)
Background/Purpose: Fibromyalgia patients have and widespread pain and tender muscles. Muscle tenderness was part of the older ACR criteria for the diagnosis of fibromyalgia. We studied muscle pressure in fibromyalgia patients.
Methods: A Stryker Pressure Monitor was inserted into the trapezius muscle to measure muscle pressure. Usually this monitor is used to detect anterior compartment syndrome in the swollen leg of a patient following trauma.
Results: 10 fibromyalgia patients meeting 2010 ACR criteria for the diagnosis and 5 controls were evaluated. The mean age of the fibromyalgia patients was 36.8; 9 females, 1 male. The mean age for the controls without fibromyalgia was 39.4; 3 females, 2 males. The fibromyalgia patients were ,as expected, more tender than controls. Using dolorimetry, the pressure until an uncomfortable feeling occurred, was 8.9 in fibromyalgia, and 14.2 pounds of pressure in controls.
The mean muscle pressure, in millimeters of mercury using the Stryker Pressure Monitor was 36.8mmHg in fibromyalgia patients and 7.8mmHg in controls.
Conclusion: Muscle pressure is increased in fibromyalgia patients. This may be an important finding in explaining the widespread pain and muscle tenderness present in these patients. Methods to reduce muscle tension may be therapeutic.
Disclosure:
R. S. Katz,
None;
K. Swiatnicki,
None.
« Back to 2014 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting
ACR Meeting Abstracts - https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/muscle-tension-is-increased-in-fibromyalgia/