Deep Friction Massage for Intercostal Pain in Patients With Heart Disease

St. Olavs Hospital

Status: Completed

Conditions: Heart Diseases; Pain

Treatments: Other: heat-pack only; Other: heat-pack with massage

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01803529

066-03

Details and patient eligibility

About

Studies show that chest pain is a common complaint presented in both general practice and in emergency units. Musculoskeletal causes are common, but frequently overlooked. No studies about treatment of chest pain from the intercostal muscles were found by search in medical literature databases. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of two different physical therapy interventions on intercostal pain in patients with stable heart disease.

The hypothesis was that deep friction massage combined with heat-pack is more effective than heat-pack only.

Enrollment: 29 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 80 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• increasing chest pain during a cardiac rehabilitation class
• stable coronary disease
• new re-vascularisation is not planned

Exclusion criteria

• unstable coronary disease
• not able to perform the study
• abuse of drugs or alcohol
• participating in other ongoing study

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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29 participants in 2 patient groups

heat-pack with massage

Experimental group

Description:

deep friction massage and standard heat-pack given a maximum of 8 treatments

Treatment:

Other: heat-pack with massage

heatpack only

Active Comparator group

Description:

standard heat-pack given a maximum of 8 treatments

Treatment:

Other: heat-pack only