| Methods |
Design: six group parallel trial
Purpose: examine the effect of different physical medicine modalities on pain threshold of a myofascial trigger point |
| Participants |
Patients: out‐patients with myofascial pain syndrome
Baseline comparability: yes (sex, age, pain duration) |
| Interventions |
Placebo: sham ultrasound
Untreated: no ultrasound
Experimental:
‐spray and stretch
‐hydrocollator
‐ultrasound
‐massage
(Co‐intervention: NS) |
| Outcomes |
Pain (Index of threshold change (ITS), based on measurements with a pressure algometer) |
| Notes |
|
| Risk of bias |
| Bias |
Authors' judgement |
Support for judgement |
| Adequate sequence generation? |
Unclear risk |
NS |
| Allocation concealment? |
Unclear risk |
NS |
| Blinding?
Treatment provider |
Unclear risk |
NS |
| Blinding?
Outcome assessor |
Unclear risk |
Not relevant as patient reported outcome |
| Incomplete outcome data addressed?
All outcomes |
High risk |
Drop‐out > 15% or NS |
| Free of selective reporting? |
Unclear risk |
No protocol available |
| Free of other bias? |
Low risk |
|
| No signs of variance inequality or skewness? |
Unclear risk |
Not relevant (not naturally positive continuous outcomes e.g. change) |
| Trial size > 49? |
High risk |
N = 37 |
| Clearly concealed allocation + trial size > 49 + drop‐out max 15% |
High risk |
Trial size < 49 |
