The Association Between Fibromyalgia and Mechanical Neck Lesions

Fibromyalgia is a painful syndrome with a non-joint origin. The disease is of relatively high prevalence and is more common in women and people over 40 years of age.

In this case-control study, 35 healthy individuals were enrolled as the control group and 35 patients with fibromyalgia as the case group. The cervical MRI was performed for all the participants, and the graphs were interpreted by a specialist who was blind to the patient group.

Lesions were severe in 94.3% of the case group, 80% of the controls (P>0.05). Between the groups in the number of involved surfaces and mean lesion levels was no significant difference. In the case and control groups, 48.5% and 92.9% of the members had only one lesion. The rates of concurrent lesions in the case and control groups were 51.5% and 7.1%, (p < 0.001). In 60.6% of the case group and 17.9% of the control group, the lesion was severe (p = 0.001). The prevalence of annular tearing and stenosis of the canal was significantly higher in the case group than in the control group (p = 0.05 and p = 0.044, respectively). However, there was no significant difference between the groups in other lesions.

Given the similarity of some of the symptoms in fibromyalgia and mechanical neck lesions, it is crucial to have timely and correct differentiation of these two diseases. Also, these results may suggest that long-term fibromyalgia can potentially exacerbate the symptoms of mechanical neck lesions.