Ultrasound Imaging as a Tool with which to Assess Differences in Supraspinatus Activation Between Symptomatic and Asymptomatic Shoulders

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Date

2016-06

Authors

Maloney, Lauren

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

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Publisher

University of Oregon

Abstract

Measurements of muscle activation are used to assess neuromuscular dysfunction in a wide variety of musculoskeletal pathologies. These measurements typically are conducted using electromyography (EMG). although recent studies have determined that ultrasound imaging is a valid and reliable tool with which to easily perform measurements of muscular activation in a clinical setting. A recent study demonstrated the inter and intra-rater reliability of rehabilitative ultrasound imaging (RUSI) of the supraspinatus in a clinical setting (Ternes et al. 2014). The first goal of the present study was to determine whether RUSI is a reliable tool for measurements of muscle thickness of the supraspinatus in patients with unilateral shoulder pain. The second goal of this study was to determine whether there were significant differences in muscle activation as quantified by percent change in muscle thickness between symptomatic and asymptomatic arms of patients. When compared with images analyzed using ImageJ software, this study found RUSI to be a valid method of quantifying supraspinatus width in patients with unilateral shoulder pain. Reliability between raters using ultrasound was also found to be above clinical standards. The results of this study did not find significant differences in supraspinatus muscle activation between symptomatic and asymptomatic limbs of patients in this study. These findings suggest that ultrasound imaging can be an accurate tool for quantifying thickness of the supraspinatus in a clinical setting. Our results indicate that further research is necessary to determine whether deficits in supraspinatus muscle activation are present in patients with unilateral shoulder pain, and to determine the contribution of various extrinsic and intrinsic factors to shoulder pathologies

Description

29 pages. A thesis presented to the Department of Human Physiology and the Clark Honors College of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for degree of Bachelor of Science, Spring 2016.

Keywords

Biomechanics, Human physiology, Ultrasound, Shoulder, Muscle, Supraspinatus, Muscle activation, Biology

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