[Physiodiagnostic indicators in tension headache.]

Practitioners often rely on physiodiagnostic indicators to corroborate the hypothesis of a muscular origin of headache. Although these indicators have been widely applied, their reliability and validity have seldom been tested empirically in headache sufferers. In a controlled double blind study, two trained raters palpated muscle tension and latent and active myogeloses of the left and right trapezius and sternocleidomastoideus muscles and measured passive head rotation flexibility. There were 28 subjects in the study, 14 suffering from tension headache and 14 matched controls. In spite of the training, interrater reliability of ratings concerning degree of muscle tension and number of latent myogeloses proved to be too low to justify subsequent use of these indicators. In keeping with the hypothesis, the various parameters of active myogeloses very clearly differentiated between the experimental groups. The hypothesis turned out not to be true for the parameters of head rotation flexibility. In subjects suffering from tension headache, no correlations could be found between the number of myogeloses of the right trapezius muscle and parameters recorded in long-term EMGs of this muscle, and no correlations could be found between the total number of myogeloses and the chronicity of headache.