A comparison of visual analog scale and shear-wave ultrasound elastography data in fibromyalgia patients and the normal population.
Kudret Cem Karayol, Sunay Sibel Karayol
PMID 33519073WHAT IT FOUND
Rhomboid muscles in fibromyalgia patients were stiffer than in healthy controls, but stiffness did not match their reported pain scores.
Shear-wave ultrasound measures tissue hardness objectively, yet it does not track how much pain a patient feels.
Key findings
01Shear-wave ultrasound values for the rhomboid major muscles were significantly higher in fibromyalgia patients than in healthy controls on both the right and left sides.
02There was no statistical significance when comparing the ultrasound stiffness values with the Visual Analog Scale pain scores in the patient group.
03The study analysed 53 patients and 46 controls, noting that the number of patients was relatively low.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The number of patients was relatively low. The study was cross-sectional, so it cannot determine if muscle stiffness causes pain or is a result of chronic pain. Exclusion criteria removed patients with obesity, diabetes, and other common comorbidities, limiting generalisability to the broader fibromyalgia population.
Declared interests
The authors received no financial support and declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that higher ultrasound stiffness values indicate a patient is in more pain. The study found no significant relationship between the objective tissue hardness measured by shear-wave ultrasound and the subjective pain scores reported by patients.