Research Article Open Access

Correlation of Clinical Finding with Ultrasound Diagnosis of Rotator Cuff Pathology

Abstract

The treatment of rotator cuff tears depends upon size and type, determined by examination and imaging. The ability of ultrasound to determine type and size of tear is helpful for treatment. The purpose of our study was to compare clinical examination with ultrasonographic findings of rotator cuff abnormality and to study the role of ultrasound in the diagnosis of rotator cuff pathology. This prospective study was conducted in 60 patients who had presented with shoulder pain due to either traumatic or degenerative cause. Patients with fracture or dislocation of shoulder, previous shoulder or upper limb surgery and malignancy were excluded from the study. All patients underwent a clinical examination followed by ultrasonography of the shoulder. In our study the sensitivity, specificity, a positive predictive value and negative predictive for diagnosing rotator cuff tears using ultrasound is 70.6%, 90.6%, 85.4% and 76.35% respectively for supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor and subscapularis tendon injuries. In conclusion, Clinical examination has to be supplemented by imaging modality to plan treatment. Ultrasound is a noninvasive method to confirm the clinical diagnosis and help to diagnosis other potential clinical mimics of this injury. Also Static and Dynamic study of shoulder joint can be done under ultrasonography.

Surendra U Kamath, Pawan Kumar Chajed, and Vivek P Nahar

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