The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association
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J Am Osteopath Assoc · Sep 2012
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative StudyAssociations of cytokine concentrations with key osteopathic lesions and clinical outcomes in patients with nonspecific chronic low back pain: results from the OSTEOPATHIC Trial.
Little is known about the role that cytokines play in osteopathic manual treatment (OMT) of patients with chronic low back pain (LBP). ⋯ This study found associations between IL-1β and IL-6 concentrations and the number of key osteopathic lesions and between IL-6 and LBP severity at baseline. However, only TNF-α concentration changed significantly after 12 weeks in response to OMT. These discordant findings indicate that additional research is needed to elucidate the underlying mechanisms of action of OMT in patients with nonspecific chronic LBP.