ArticleArchives of rehabilitation research and clinical translation2020
The Interexaminer Reproducibility and Prevalence of Lumbar and Gluteal Myofascial Trigger Points in Patients With Radiating Low Back Pain.
Article in Archives of rehabilitation research and clinical translation, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed.
- Reproducibility of a Shear Wave Elastography Procedure for Assessing the Piriformis Muscle Stiffness in a Sample of Healthy Young Adults Under Controlled Laboratory Conditions: An Intra- and Inter-Examiner Reliability Study.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- Evaluation of the inter-examiner reliability of myofascial trigger point identification in dogs.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2026Article
- Anatomical Investigation of the Gluteus Medius Muscle Innervation and Its Topographical Correspondence With Myofascial Trigger Points.BioMed research international · 2026Article
- Quadratus lumborum muscle stiffness in chronic non-specific low back pain: a diagnostic accuracy study.European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society · 2025Article
- Prevalence of Myofascial Trigger Points in Patients with Radiating and Non-Radiating Low Back Pain: A Systematic Review.Biomedicines · 2025Review
- Reliability of Shear Wave Elastography for Measuring the Elastic Properties of the Quadratus Lumborum Muscle.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Association of Quadratus Lumborum Muscle Stiffness with Chronic Low Back Pain Features: An Observational Study.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2025Observational
- The Use and Benefits of Focused Shockwaves for the Diagnosis of Myofascial Pain Syndrome by Examining Myofascial Trigger Points in Low Back Pain.Biomedicines · 2024Article
- Testing the Safety of Piriformis Dry Needling Interventions: An Observational Study Evaluating the Predictive Value of Anthropometric and Demographic Factors.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo determine the interexaminer reproducibility for judging the presence, number, and location of leg-pain referring myofascial trigger points, and their prevalence in patients with low back pain with and without concomitant leg pain referral.
designAn interexaminer reproducibility study.
settingAn outpatient public Hospital Spine Centre in Southern Denmark.
participants
interventionsA standardized palpation examination protocol of 4 bilateral lumbosacral muscles performed by each examiner.
main outcome measuresReproducibility on presence (measured in Cohen's κ), number (difference and limits of agreement), location (distance between matching marks placed by examiners), and prevalence of myofascial trigger points.
resultsKappa values of the examined muscles were as follows: quadratus lumborum (κ=0.42), gluteus medius (κ=0.83), gluteus minimus (κ=0.74), and piriformis (κ=0.62), with a mean of all examined muscles of kappa=0.66, assessed as substantial agreement. The mean difference in number of trigger points was 0.8, with limits of agreement ranging from -6.4 to 4.9. Mean distance between trigger point locations was 12.9 mm, with 57% only being identified by a single examiner. The prevalence of trigger points was 82.7%, highest in the gluteal region of the painful side.
conclusionsInadequate standardization and multiple trigger point sites complicate interexaminer reproducibility on location and number of patients with low back pain and leg pain referral. Nevertheless, substantial interexaminer reproducibility for the trigger point presence appears achievable. Implemented routinely, this relatively simple clinical evaluation procedure could meaningfully enhance diagnostic triage and eventual management.
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