title: Novel insights into the interplay between ventral neck muscles in individuals with whiplash-associated disorders.
abstract: Chronic whiplash-associated disorder (WAD) is common after whiplash injury, with considerable personal, social, and economic burden. Despite decades of research, factors responsible for continuing pain and disability are largely unknown, and diagnostic tools are lacking. Here, we report a novel model of mechanical ventral neck muscle function recorded from non-invasive, real-time, ultrasound measurements. We calculated the deformation area and deformation rate in 23 individuals with persistent WAD and compared them to 23 sex- and age-matched controls. Multivariate statistics were used to analyse interactions between ventral neck muscles, revealing different interplay between muscles in individuals with WAD and healthy controls. Although the cause and effect relation cannot be established from this data, for the first time, we reveal a novel method capable of detecting different neck muscle interplay in people with WAD. This non-invasive method stands to make a major breakthrough in the assessment and diagnosis of people following a whiplash trauma.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Clinical Research Sörmland, Uppsala University, Eskilstuna, Sweden.|Department of Medical and Health Sciences, Division of Physiotherapy, Faculty of Health Sciences, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden.
authors.forename: Gunnel
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Peterson
authors.affiliation: Computational Life Science Cluster (CLiC), Department of Chemistry, Umeå University, Sweden.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Nilsson
authors.affiliation: Computational Life Science Cluster (CLiC), Department of Chemistry, Umeå University, Sweden.
authors.forename: Johan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Trygg
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neurorehabilitation Systems, Bernstein Focus Neurotechnology (BFNT) Göttingen, Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, University Medical Center Göttingen, Georg-August University, Göttingen, Germany.|Pain Clinic, Center for Anesthesiology, Emergency and Intensive Care Medicine, University Hospital Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Deborah
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Falla
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Division of Physiotherapy, Karolinska Institutet.|Department of Physical Therapy, Karolinska University Hospital, Sweden.
authors.forename: Åsa
authors.initials: Å
authors.lastname: Dedering
authors.affiliation: Centre for Clinical Research Sörmland, Uppsala University, Eskilstuna, Sweden.|Uppsala University, Public Health &Caring Sciences, Family Medicine &Preventive Medicine Section, Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Thorne
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wallman
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical and Health Sciences, Division of Physiotherapy, Faculty of Health Sciences, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden.
authors.forename: Anneli
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Peolsson
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D016002:Discriminant Analysis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016018:Least-Squares Analysis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009334:Neck Muscles / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D014463:Ultrasonography; D014911:Whiplash Injuries / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D055815:Young Adult