Ultrasound SWE, EEG, and subjective symptom ratings from office workers with trapezius myalgia

This data set was collected during the assessment of office workers currently or previously experiencing muscle tightness due to trapezius myalgia. Eligibility criteria included age between 20 and 50 years, generally considered healthy and regularly engaged in desk-based or computer work for at least 6 h/workday. Participants with and without the sensation of tightness in the shoulder-neck region were included in this study. Asymptomatic participants were asked prior to allocation to the study sample whether they had experienced muscle tightness at some point before to ensure they were familiar with the construct of interest. The presence of systemic (e.g., chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, rheumatoid arthritis) or neurological disorders (e.g., epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, neurodegenerative diseases), the use of medication that may affect neuromuscular function or responsiveness (e.g., muscle relaxants, psychotropic drugs) or regular use of analgesics (e.g., nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen), and a recent history of head, should or neck trauma (e.g., concussion, traumatic brain injury, whiplash) led to exclusion from the study. Ultrasound SWE data were collected using Aixplorer Ultimate V12 with an ML15-4 linear transducer (SuperSonic Imagine, Aix-en-Provence, France). The MSK preset was used with a b-mode sampling frequency of 11.0 Hz and SWE sampling frequencies between 1.6 and 2.0 Hz. The elastogram was positioned just deep of the upper fascia of the upper trapezius muscle and was adjusted to cover the largest possible area of the visible muscle. The focus point was placed in the middle of the elastogram. Data were processed using the MATLAB-based GUI as described by Haueise et al. 2025: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-05154-2 EEG data were collected using 28 ‘ladybird’ active electrodes connected via ‘g.GAMMAbox’ driver boxes to two ‘g.USBamp’ biosignal amplifiers (g.Tec medical engineering GmbH, Schiedlberg, Austria) synchronized to each other. Data were acquired with a sampling frequency of 1200 Hz. The electrode driver boxes are internally referenced to the A2 channel via a clip-on electrode at the right earlobe, the FpZ-electrode acted as the ground electrode for the system. The data files include the processed SWE data expressed as SWV in m/s averaged across three measurement repetitons per condition in long format, the EEG data expressed as PSD in dB for the theta (4-8 Hz), alpha (8-12 Hz) and beta (12-30 Hz) frequency bands in long format, as well as the sociodemographic data, and PROMS used. The PROMS includeed the Muscle Tightness Measurement Tool (MTMT; Bhimani et al. 2021), Neck Disability Index (NDI, Vernon & Mior 1991) and two 0-10 NRS assessing the current and average tapezius tightness over the past four weeks.