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Investigating the relationship between pain level and grip and wrist muscles strength in individuals with lateral epicondylitis: is pain a barrier to strength assessment?

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Abstract

Purpose

This study was carried out to examine the relationship between rest, activity, and nighttime pain and grip and isokinetic muscle strength of the wrist muscles in individuals with lateral epicondylitis.

Methods

Fifty-six sedentary individuals aged between 18 and 65 years diagnosed with unilateral lateral epicondylitis volunteered to participate in the study. The level of rest, activity, and nighttime pain was evaluated with visual analog scale (VAS). The grip strengths of both arms were evaluated by averaging a maximum of three grip strength measurements using a hand dynamometer. The strength of both wrist flexor and extensor muscles were evaluated with isokinetic dynamometer at angular velocities of 60 and 180°/s with five and 15 concentric repetitions respectively.

Results

There was no significant relationship found between the affected side’s grip strength and isokinetic muscle strength with rest, activity and nighttime pain (all P > 0.05). However, there was a difference observed between the affected and unaffected side in grip strength and isokinetic strength measurements of all wrist muscles (all P < 0.05); the unaffected side values were found to be higher.

Conclusion

The result of this study found no correlation between the stated level of pain and the true muscle strength in the affected hand. In line with these findings, we think that assessments involving strength can be made in other musculoskeletal problems where pain is present. However, the findings may not reflect the true muscle strength which will tend to be underrated.

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Data availability

The datasets analyzed for the current study are available upon reasonable request.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt Üniversitesi, Ankara, Turkey

    Bihter Akınoğlu & Salman Usman Shehu

  2. Department of Statistics, Faculty of Science, Hacettepe Üniversitesi, Ankara, Turkey

    Ayfer Ezgi Yılmaz

  3. Department of Sports Medicine, Gülhane Faculty of Medicine, Sağlık Bilimleri Üniversitesi, Ankara, Turkey

    Aydan Örsçelik & Tuğba Kocahan

Authors
  1. Bihter Akınoğlu
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  2. Salman Usman Shehu
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  3. Ayfer Ezgi Yılmaz
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  4. Aydan Örsçelik
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  5. Tuğba Kocahan
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the research strategy, evaluations, research question design, and data analysis strategy. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Bihter Akınoğlu.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval

All procedures of the study comply with the principles of the Helsinki Declaration (2008), approval for this study was obtained from Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University Social and Humanities Ethics Committee (2023/06–260).

Consent to participate

Informed consent was obtained from all participants included in the study.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Akınoğlu, B., Shehu, S.U., Yılmaz, A.E. et al. Investigating the relationship between pain level and grip and wrist muscles strength in individuals with lateral epicondylitis: is pain a barrier to strength assessment?. International Orthopaedics (SICOT) 48, 651–656 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00264-023-06068-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00264-023-06068-2

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