Soft Tissue Biomechanical Behavior During Acupuncture in Low Back Pain

See Brief Summary

Inclusion Criteria:

Inclusion criteria for LBP subjects will be the following:

1. History of recurrent or chronic LBP as defined by Von Korff {Von Korff, 1992 #6777}
{Von Korff, 1994 #6816} for a minimum of 12 months

2. Able to stand and walk without assistance

3. Able to understand and read English

4. Able to understand and sign a consent form. Subjects' LBP will be further defined as
being recurrent or chronic LPB based on the number of days with symptoms over a
period of one year.

- Recurrent LBP will be defined as back pain present on less than ½ the days in a
12-month period, occurring in multiple episodes over a year.

- Chronic LBP will be defined as back pain present on at least ½ the days in a
12-month period in a single or multiple episodes.

Inclusion criteria for No-LBP subjects:

Criteria for selecting No-LBP subjects will be:

1. No history of low back pain or any other chronic pain that has limited activities of
daily living or work

2. A numerical current pain index of less than 0.5. No-LBP subjects will be matched for
age, sex and subcutaneous tissue thickness with LBP subjects.

Exclusion Criteria:

For all subjects, exclusion criteria determined by history and physical exam will be the
following:

1. Previous severe back or low extremity injury or surgery

2. Major structural spinal deformity (scoliosis, kyphosis, stenosis)

3. Ankylosing spondylitis or rheumatoid arthritis

4. Spondyloarthropathy or disc herniation

5. Spinal fracture, tumor or infection

6. Neurological deficit (weakness and/or sensory loss, decreased deep tendon reflexes
suggesting nerve root compression, but not subjective symptoms of nerve root
irritation (sciatica)

7. Neurological or major psychiatric disorder

8. Bleeding disorders

9. Corticosteroid or anticoagulant medication

10. Pregnancy

11. worker's compensation or disability case

12. In litigation for the LBP problem

13. Acute systemic infection

14. BMI greater than 23% or less than 32%. Preliminary testing has shown that
individuals with a BMI of less than 23% have an insufficient depth of the
subcutaneous and fat zone (Zone P) for data processing. Individuals with a BMI
greater than 32% have a subcutaneous and fat zone (Zone P) thickness which is greater
than the acupuncture needle length, which will not allow penetration of the muscle
layer (Zone M).

15. Subjects will need to not take non-steroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAIDs) medication
for 3 days prior to testing in order to avoid the potentially confounding acute
effects of NSAIDs on connective tissue.

16. In addition, LBP subjects will be excluded if they are in an acute flare-up of LBP.
Flare-up will be defined as short period (less than one week) when pain is markedly
more severe than usual for that individual (at least 5 points above baseline on pain
index).