Effect of Upper Thoracic Manipulation on Neck Pain and Selected Muscle Activities

NCT ID: NCT06926738

Last Updated: 2025-05-02

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

Get a concise snapshot of the trial, including recruitment status, study phase, enrollment targets, and key timeline milestones.

Recruitment Status

RECRUITING

Clinical Phase

NA

Total Enrollment

42 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2025-04-15

Study Completion Date

2026-02-28

Brief Summary

Review the sponsor-provided synopsis that highlights what the study is about and why it is being conducted.

This study will investigate the immediate and short-term effects of upper thoracic manipulation versus sham upper thoracic manipulation on Pain intensity, Cervical ROM, the myoelectric activity of the sternocleidomastoid muscle and upper trapezius muscle during Maximum voluntary isometric contraction.

Detailed Description

Dive into the extended narrative that explains the scientific background, objectives, and procedures in greater depth.

This study will investigate the immediate and short-term effects of upper thoracic manipulation versus sham upper thoracic manipulation on Pain intensity measured by the visual analogue scale, Cervical ROM measured by CROM, the myoelectric activity of the sternocleidomastoid muscle and upper trapezius muscle during Maximum voluntary isometric contraction measured by Neuro-Soft using surface electrodes. All outcomes will be measured Pre-intervention, Immediately Post-Intervention, One-week Post-intervention, Two-week post-intervention.

Conditions

See the medical conditions and disease areas that this research is targeting or investigating.

Chronic Neck Pain

Study Design

Understand how the trial is structured, including allocation methods, masking strategies, primary purpose, and other design elements.

Allocation Method

RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

PARALLEL

Primary Study Purpose

TREATMENT

Blinding Strategy

SINGLE

Participants

Study Groups

Review each arm or cohort in the study, along with the interventions and objectives associated with them.

Upper thoracic manipulation group

The Patients in this group will receive Upper Thoracic Manipulation.

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

Upper Thoracic Manipulation

Intervention Type OTHER

Segmental mobility will be assessed using posteroanterior central vertebral pressure and posteroanterior unilateral vertebral pressure. It will be done while the patient lies in a prone position and the examiner stands at the level of the patient's head.

Afterwards, the subjects in the thoracic manipulation group will be asked to lie in a prone position on a standard examination table and they were marked on both sides of the zygapophyseal joint of the selected segments including levels from T1- T4. Subjects will then be instructed to perform deep inhalation and exhalation and at the end of exhalation, the Clinician will perform thoracic manipulation (screw thrust technique) at the selected segmental level/s. This maneuver will be repeated for a maximum of two attempts in case of no hearing of a pop sound. It will be performed by an experienced physiotherapist with more than 10-year experience.

Sham Upper Thoracic Manipulation

The patients in this group will receive the sham upper thoracic manipulation.

Group Type SHAM_COMPARATOR

Sham Comparison

Intervention Type OTHER

Segmental mobility will be assessed using posteroanterior central vertebral pressure and posteroanterior unilateral vertebral pressure. It will be done while the patient lies in a prone position and the examiner stands at the level of the patient's head.

Afterwards, the subjects in the thoracic manipulation group will be asked to lie in a prone position on a standard examination table and they were marked on both sides of the zygapophyseal joint of the selected segments including levels from T1- T4. Subjects will then be instructed to perform deep inhalation and exhalation and at the end of exhalation, the Clinician will just the place the hands on the selected levels in the same hand placement of Thoracic manipulation group (screw thrust technique) without applying the manipulation. It will be performed by an experienced physiotherapist with more than 10-year experience.

Interventions

Learn about the drugs, procedures, or behavioral strategies being tested and how they are applied within this trial.

Upper Thoracic Manipulation

Segmental mobility will be assessed using posteroanterior central vertebral pressure and posteroanterior unilateral vertebral pressure. It will be done while the patient lies in a prone position and the examiner stands at the level of the patient's head.

Afterwards, the subjects in the thoracic manipulation group will be asked to lie in a prone position on a standard examination table and they were marked on both sides of the zygapophyseal joint of the selected segments including levels from T1- T4. Subjects will then be instructed to perform deep inhalation and exhalation and at the end of exhalation, the Clinician will perform thoracic manipulation (screw thrust technique) at the selected segmental level/s. This maneuver will be repeated for a maximum of two attempts in case of no hearing of a pop sound. It will be performed by an experienced physiotherapist with more than 10-year experience.

Intervention Type OTHER

Sham Comparison

Segmental mobility will be assessed using posteroanterior central vertebral pressure and posteroanterior unilateral vertebral pressure. It will be done while the patient lies in a prone position and the examiner stands at the level of the patient's head.

Afterwards, the subjects in the thoracic manipulation group will be asked to lie in a prone position on a standard examination table and they were marked on both sides of the zygapophyseal joint of the selected segments including levels from T1- T4. Subjects will then be instructed to perform deep inhalation and exhalation and at the end of exhalation, the Clinician will just the place the hands on the selected levels in the same hand placement of Thoracic manipulation group (screw thrust technique) without applying the manipulation. It will be performed by an experienced physiotherapist with more than 10-year experience.

Intervention Type OTHER

Eligibility Criteria

Check the participation requirements, including inclusion and exclusion rules, age limits, and whether healthy volunteers are accepted.

Inclusion Criteria

1. Male and female subjects diagnosed and classified as having chronic non-specific NP with mobility disorders based on clinical guidelines of NP:

* Having NP for at least 3 months that may be associated with referred shoulder or upper extremity pain (Blanpied et al., 2017; Erdem et al., 2021; Puntumetakul et al., 2015).
* Present with a limitation of cervical ROM and their pain can be provoked by sustained end-range spinal movements or positions will be included (Blanpied et al., 2017).
* Patients present with unilateral or bilateral symptoms will be included (Blanpied et al., 2017; Yang et al., 2015).
2. Age between 18-40 (J. Dunning \& Rushton, 2009)
3. Negative four tests of the Wainner cluster to exclude NP with radiating pain (Wainner et al., 2003).
4. Hypomobility of at least one of the upper thoracic vertebrae (T1-T4) during segmental mobility assessment (Ssavedra-Hernández et al., 2011).

Exclusion Criteria

1. Subjects diagnosed as cervical radiculopathy or myelopathy (Ssavedra-Hernández et al., 2011).
2. A history of whiplash injury, past cervical or thoracic surgery, rheumatoid arthritis, spinal fracture, heart disease, a recent significant trauma, and meningitis (Joshi et al., 2020; Puntumetakul et al., 2015).
3. The presence of contraindications of spinal manipulation as spinal infection and spinal osteoporosis(Ssavedra-Hernández et al., 2011).
Minimum Eligible Age

18 Years

Maximum Eligible Age

40 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Sponsors

Meet the organizations funding or collaborating on the study and learn about their roles.

Cairo University

OTHER

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

Identify the individual or organization who holds primary responsibility for the study information submitted to regulators.

Mohamed Nagy Hassan Abdelhamid

Assistant lecturer

Responsibility Role PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Locations

Explore where the study is taking place and check the recruitment status at each participating site.

CairoU

Giza, , Egypt

Site Status RECRUITING

Faculty of Physical Therapy, Cairo University

Giza, , Egypt

Site Status RECRUITING

Countries

Review the countries where the study has at least one active or historical site.

Egypt

Central Contacts

Reach out to these primary contacts for questions about participation or study logistics.

Mohamed Nagy Hassan Abdelhamid, MSc degree

Role: CONTACT

+201272571215

Facility Contacts

Find local site contact details for specific facilities participating in the trial.

Afaf Mohamed Omar Tahoon, PhD/ Lecturer

Role: primary

+2 0101 5401783

Afaf Omar Tahoon, PhD/ Lecturer

Role: primary

+201015401783

Other Identifiers

Review additional registry numbers or institutional identifiers associated with this trial.

Upper thoracic manipulation

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id

More Related Trials

Additional clinical trials that may be relevant based on similarity analysis.