Sonoelastography of the Shoulder: A Narrative Review.
Arash Babaei-Ghazani, Carl-Elie Majdalani, Dien Hung Luong and 2 others
PMID 36188843WHAT IT FOUND
Sonoelastography shows mixed results for shoulder pain, with studies disagreeing on whether tendinopathy makes tissue stiffer or softer.
It is highly operator-dependent and not yet ready to replace MRI or clinical exam for diagnosis.
Key findings
01Studies disagree on whether supraspinatus tendinopathy increases or decreases tissue stiffness, with some finding softer tendons and others stiffer ones.
02Adhesive capsulitis consistently shows increased stiffness in the supraspinatus and infraspinatus tendons and the coracohumeral ligament.
03The technique is highly operator-dependent, with reliability affected by manual compression pressure, reference tissue choice, and examiner experience.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
This is a narrative review, not a systematic review, meaning the selection of studies was not standardized or exhaustive. The included studies show contradictory findings on the same conditions, indicating a lack of consensus in the field. The technique is heavily operator-dependent, with results varying based on the pressure applied during the scan. There is no standardized protocol for measuring stiffness, including where to place the region of interest on the screen. Many included studies had small sample sizes or lacked control groups.
Declared interests
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume sonoelastography is a validated diagnostic tool for rotator cuff tendinopathy. The reviewed studies disagree on whether tendinopathic tissue is stiffer or softer than normal tissue, and the results are too inconsistent and operator-dependent to change clinical decision-making at this stage.