Hot Trigger Points Highlighted on an EMG

Trigger point presence is characteristic of nerve related muscle pain.  The irritability of a trigger point (neuromuscular junction) is highly correlated with the ease in locating and evoking miniature end plate potentials, end plate spikes and myokymia (twitches) on intramuscular movements of the needle EMG electrode.  These recordable electrical potentials are from stimulation of very small intramuscular nerve terminals at the hyperexcitable (hot) trigger points.  Procedures which involve needling of muscles such as acupuncture, intramuscular stimulation (IMS) and EMG thus evoke EMG level muscle twitches which cause a local exercise and stretch effect to the area  needled, giving pain/discomfort relief. When the twitches become visibly stronger with surface stimulation as in eToims which can excite many motor end-plate zones, EMG is no longer needed.  There is now mechanical force strong enough for the stimulated muscle to move the joint in its direction of action, in anti-gravity fashion, with capacity to fatigue these points momentarily producing more significant pain/discomfort relieving results.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• trigger points
• intramuscular stimulation
• acupuncture
• EMG
• electromyography
• muscle pain
• back pain
• neck pain
• motor end plates