Sonographic evaluation of the rotator cuff: Correlation with arthroscopy

Role of community diagnostic ultrasound examination in the diagnosis of full‐thickness rotator cuff tears

“…Accuracy rates reported in the literature for diagnostic ultrasound diagnosis of full‐thickness cuff tears vary from 73% to 100% 1−10 . This was not consistent with the impression gained by the senior authors (JAG and DHS) in clinical practice.…”

“…Clinical reports to date suggest that diagnostic ultrasound examination is very accurate and sensitive in the diagnosis of full‐thickness rotator cuff tears 1−10 .…”

“…The cases studied generally came from units with particular interests in ultrasonography. Some studies compared ultrasonography to arthroscopy 2−7,10 while other studies compared ultrasonography to arthrography 1,8,9 . The present study reviews a group of 336 patients who had both diagnostic ultrasound examination and arthrography, and compares the accuracy rate of the diagnostic ultrasound examination to that of arthrography and clinical examination, using findings at arthrography and surgery as definitive.…”

The effectiveness of diagnostic tests for the assessment of shoulder pain due to soft tissue disorders: a systematic review

“…Eleven studies provided sufficient information on which to judge the spectrum of included patients, but only one 68 was judged to have included an appropriate spectrum of patients. In the others, patients were reported to have experienced pain for at least 6 months or more 55,58,[60][61][62][63][64]69 (in three cases for a mean of 2 years 62,63,69 ) or specifically stated that only problem patients 70 or those with persistent symptoms 56 were included. The remaining studies did not provide sufficient information on which to make a judgement; however given that all except two 71,72 only included patients undergoing the reference test, it is unlikely that they were broadly representative of patients encountered in practice.…”

Die dreidimensionale Ultraschalluntersuchung der Rotatorenmanschette

“…Seit Selzner 1979 [1] die Möglichkeit der sonographischen Diagnostik bei Rotatorenmanschettenrupturen publizierte, hat es große Fortschritte in der differenzierten Untersuchung gegeben. Auch wenn Zuverlässigkeiten von über 90 % berichtet werden [3,4,15,16], bleibt die Zuverlässigkeit bei den Partialrupturen unbefriedigend, die schlechter ist als bei Totalrupturen der Manschette [5,16,19]. Andererseits sind auch Untersuchungen mit einer Sensitivität von weniger als 70 % publiziert [17,21,22].…”