Reliability of the Supraspinatus Muscle Thickness Measurement by Ultrasonography

Abstract

ObjectiveTo assess the intrarater and interrater reliability of the supraspinatus thickness measured by ultrasonography (US) in normal subjects and to identify the relationship between the supraspinatus thickness measured by US and cross sectional area (CSA) of the supraspinatus muscle by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in hemiplegic patients.MethodWe examined 20 shoulders of normal subjects and 10 shoulders of hemiplegic patients. In normal subjects, one examiner measured the supraspinatus thickness twice by US at the scapular notch and another examiner measured the supraspinatus thickness several days later. The intrarater and interrater reliability of supraspinatus thickness measurements were then evaluated. In hemiplegic patients, the supraspinatus thickness at the scapular notch was measured by US in affected side and compared with CSA of the supraspinatus muscle at the scapular notch and the Y-view of MRI.ResultsOne examiner's supraspinatus thickness measurement average was 1.72±0.21 cm and 1.74±0.24 cm, and the other examiner's supraspinatus thickness measurement average was 1.74±0.22 cm in normal subjects. Intraclass correlation coefficients of intrarater and interrater examination were 0.91 and 0.88, respectively. For hemiplegic patients, the supraspinatus thickness measured by US was 1.66±0.13 cm and CSA by MRI was 4.83±0.88 cm2 at the Y-view and 5.61±1.19 cm2 at the scapular notch. The Pearson Correlation Coefficient between the supraspinatus thickness at the scapular notch and the CSA at the Y-view was 0.72 and that between the supraspinatus thickness and CSA at the scapular notch was 0.76.ConclusionThe supraspinatus thickness measurement by US is a reliable method and is positively correlated with the CSA of the supraspinatus muscle in MRI in hemiplegic patients. Therefore, supraspinatus thickness measurement by US can be used in the evaluation of muscle atrophy and to determine therapeutic effects in hemiplegic patients.

Rehabilitative ultrasound imaging of the supraspinatus muscle: Intra- and interrater reliability of thickness and cross-sectional area

“…There is a paucity of studies that investigated the reliability of morphological measurements of supraspinatus muscle (Katayose and Magee, 2001;Yi et al, 2012), but none of them included physical therapists as operator. The aim of this study was to establish the reliability of morphometric measurements made by two physical therapists in a same day testeretest study.…”

“…Juul-Kristensen et al (2000) reported a mean thickness of 20.1 mm at the supraspinatus midpoint. A recent study by Yi et al (2012) measured the supraspinatus thickness and determined means of 17.2 AE 2.1 mm for rater 1 and 17.4 AE 2.2 mm for rater 2. The measurement point was in the distal part of the muscle, near the acromion.…”

Ultrasound assessment of hamstring muscle size using posterior thigh muscle thickness

“…Therefore, it is important to know whether MT is related to anatomical muscle CSA and MV in an individual muscle of the extremity and trunk. Previously, the linear relationship between MT and muscle CSA or MV has been observed in the quadriceps (Sipila & Suominen, ; Abe et al ., ), adductor (Ogawa et al ., ), triceps surae (Miyatani et al ., ), tibialis anterior (Martinson & Stokes, ), biceps brachii (Akagi et al ., ), triceps brachii (Miyatani et al ., ), pectoralis major (Yasuda et al ., ), supraspinatus (Yi et al ., ) and psoas major (Takai et al ., ) muscles. Other major muscle groups in the body such as hamstring, however, have not been investigated.…”

Morphological and functional relationships with ultrasound measured muscle thickness of the upper extremity and trunk

“…Similar results were also reported with the psoas major muscle in that CSA measured by MRI is highly (r ¼ 0.95, p < 0.05, n ¼ 11) correlated to MT of the psoas major measured by ultrasound. 30 In addition, Yi et al 28 found a high correlation (r ¼ 0.76, p ¼ 0.01, n ¼ 10) between ultrasound measured supraspinatus MT and MRImeasured supraspinatus muscle CSA in hemiplegic patients. Although there are a limited number of studies, the results are similar to MT of the upper extremity in that MT in the trunk may reflect muscle CSA and MV of the individual trunk muscles.…”