Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine, 2020/01, 39(1):157-164. doi: 10.1002/jum.15092, type of study: ,ct,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Full text    (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/jum.15092)

Keywords:

musculoskeletal disorder [26]
osteopathic manipulative treatment [3945]
shear wave elastography [5]
somatic dysfunction [159]
ultrasound [56]
ultrasound transducer [1]
muscle rigidity [4]
muscle contractility [1]
clinical trial [674]

Abstract:

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the feasibility of ultrasound shear wave elastography (SWE) in assessing iliocostalis lumborum muscle changes after osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT). METHODS: Using a linear array ultrasound transducer (4-9 MHz), we prospectively measured the shear wave velocity (SWV) of bilateral iliocostalis lumborum muscles in 20 patients with low back somatic dysfunction and in 9 age-matched healthy volunteers. The SWV was measured in muscle relaxation and contraction in all participants and immediately before and after OMT in patients. We developed a muscle SWV rate [SWVcontraction - SWVrelaxation )/SWVrelaxation ] and an SWV improvement index [(SWVpre-OMT - SWVpost-OMT )/SWVpre-OMT ] for quantifying muscle contractibility and changes in muscle stiffness after OMT. Statistical analyses included an unpaired t test to analyze the difference in the muscle SWV between muscle relaxation and contraction and between somatic dysfunction and nonsomatic dysfunction in patients and healthy volunteers, a paired t test to examine the difference in the SWV and SWV rate before and after OMT, the intraclass correlation coefficient to test intraobserver and interobserver reliability, and Spearman rank correlation to analyze the correlation of changes in the SWV with manual osteopathic assessments. RESULTS: The mean ages of the patients with low back somatic dysfunction and the healthy volunteers were 28 and 26 years, respectively. The muscle SWV significantly differed between somatic dysfunction and nonsomatic dysfunction in patients and healthy volunteers, between muscle relaxation and contraction, and before and after OMT (P < .001). The SWV improvement index moderately correlated with manual osteopathic assessments (r = 0.68). The interobserver and intraobserver reliability for performing SWE was good (intraclass correlation coefficient, >0.8). CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that SWE is feasible for quantifying the change in muscle stiffness and contractibility after OMT.