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
Volume Title
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