Trial reportThe Journal of manual & manipulative therapy2025
The effects of dry needling on muscle blood flow of the infraspinatus muscle in individuals with shoulder pain - a randomized clinical trial.
Trial report in The Journal of manual & manipulative therapy, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Physiological correlates and predictors of vasovagal responses following dry needling in myofascial pain syndrome: a controlled observational study.Therapeutic advances in musculoskeletal disease · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundIndividuals with shoulder pain have a higher occurrence of myofascial trigger points (MTrPs). In the past decade, dry needling (DN) has been used in physical therapy practice to treat MTrPs. Impaired blood flow is proposed as an underlying mechanism of MTrPs in neck-shoulder pain. However, whether DN would improve muscle blood flow in individuals with shoulder pathology has not been examined. Therefore, the primary purpose of this study was to use color Doppler imaging to examine the effects of DN on the blood flow of the infraspinatus muscle in individuals with shoulder pain. The secondary purpose was to examine the effects of DN on sensitivity to pressure and shoulder range of motion (ROM) of the infraspinatus muscle in individuals with shoulder pain.
methodThis randomized comparison trial utilized a sham-controlled design. Forty individuals with nonspecific shoulder pain and at least one MTrP in the infraspinatus muscle were randomly assigned to a real DN group or a sham DN group. Outcome measures, including blood flow parameters, ROMs of shoulder internal rotation and external rotation, and pressure pain threshold (PPT) were collected before and immediately after a single session of DN.
resultsThe repeated measure ANOVA results revealed that real DN significantly decreased peak systolic velocity (PSV) and increased shoulder internal and external rotation ROM more than sham DN (
conclusionThe results indicated that participants who received real DN exhibited a significant reduction in PSV, suggesting improved blood flow to the infraspinatus muscle. Participants who received real DN exhibited improvements in shoulder ROM but showed no reductions in sensitivity to pressure. These results may provide clinicians with evidence for the use of DN for individuals with shoulder pain.
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Registered trials
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