Electromyography Scanning in the Diagnosis of Tension Headache

Abstract

Introduction: Several attempts have been made to validate the purported aetiological mechanism after the prescribed proposal by the Ad Hoc Committee (1962), on the Classification of Headache which was recognised as muscle contraction or tension as a distinct headache diagnosis. The Electromyography (EMG) of the temporalis muscle in tension headache patients is measured to identify whether the correlation of EMG amplitude and intensity of pain reported by patients can be attributed to the diagnosis of Tension Type Headache (TTH). Aim: To correlate between Surface Electromyography (sEMG) activity and pain scale in TTH patients. Materials and Methods: The present study cross-sectional study was conducted in the Out Patient Department (OPD) of Psychiatry MLB Medical College, Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh, India during the period of 2009 to 2012 in which surface EMG responses of the temporalis muscle were recorded on 100 TTH patients before they go for any sort of treatment. Subjects aged 20 to 45 years were included, out of which 58 were females and 42 males. In this study, Pearson’s correlation coefficient was calculated to investigate the correlation between muscular activity and subjective pain scores. Results: The correlation value was (r=0.857) between EMG amplitude and pain scale in all 100 TTH patients. Male to female ratio was 1:1.38. Among the age groups 20-25 (years) and 26- 30 (years) had the maximum number of patients 32% and 25% respectively. Conclusion: All age groups showed a positive correlation between EMG amplitude and headache intensity. It was found that females in every age group was more frequently affected as compared to males and the young population had more chances of being diagnosed as TTH patients because it emerged as the largest number 32% among all age groups.

Keywords

• pain scale
• surface electrodes
• temporalis muscle
• tension type headache