Musculoskeletal ultrasound

Musculoskeletal ultrasound: Precise positioning, so that diseases hidden in the musculoskeletal nowhere to hide!

In the past, the diagnosis of musculoskeletal diseases was generally assisted by X-ray, CT, and MRI (nuclear magnetic resonance). However, the advent of musculoskeletal ultrasound has opened up a "new world" of more accurate diagnosis of musculoskeletal diseases. With high resolution, high-frequency ultrasound can clearly display the superficial soft tissue structures of muscles, tendons, ligaments, fascia, peripheral nerves and their lesions, providing clinicians with accurate treatment methods.

First, what is musculoskeletal ultrasound?
Musculoskeletal ultrasound is an ultrasound examination applied to musculoskeletal system, which is a newly developed ultrasonic diagnostic technology in recent years. It is different from traditional ultrasound application fields such as abdomen, heart, obstetrics and gynecology. It uses high-frequency ultrasound to diagnose musculoskeletal system diseases, and can clearly show superficial soft tissue structures such as muscles, tendons, ligaments, peripheral nerves and their lesions, such as structural abnormalities caused by inflammation, tumors, injuries, and deformities. The ability to display soft tissue lesions can be comparable to MRI, and it can fine distinguish the anatomical structure of muscles and superficial nerves. It provides accurate diagnosis for tendon rupture, muscle tear, chronic strain, peripheral neuritis, rheumatoid arthritis, gout and other diseases involving joints.

Second, which parts of the lesion can be found by musculoskeletal ultrasound?

1. Application in joint diseases: musculoskeletal ultrasound can show the skeletal outline of normal joints and the hyaline cartilage covering the joint surface. It can be used to examine rheumatoid arthritis, suppurative arthritis, osteoarthritis, gouty arthritis, synovitis, tendon/tenosynovitis and bone erosion.

2. Application in muscle and tendinopathy: musculoskeletal ultrasound can clearly show the direction and shape of muscles and tendons. It can be used to evaluate a range of muscle lesions, including strain/tear, hematoma, compartment syndrome, rhabdomyolysis, muscular hernia, and tumor, and thus to determine the lesion status. Tendinopathy ranges from tendinitis, intra-tendon or partial tearing, to more severe full-layer tearing or complete tearing. At present, musculoskeletal ultrasound is also widely used in the diagnosis of rotator cuff disease, tennis elbow, golf elbow, Achilles tendon disease and other diseases.

3. Application of peripheral nerves: It can clearly display the distribution, direction, thickness of peripheral nerves and the relationship between their surrounding anatomy. Musculoskeletal ultrasound can diagnose peripheral nerve injury according to the structural changes of nerve bundle, nerve bundle membrane and epineural membrane, changes in nerve thickness and lesions of surrounding tissues. Such as nerve injury, nerve entrapment, acute brachial plexus neuritis, cervical rib syndrome, peripheral nerve tumor and other lesions.

4. Application in bone and cartilage lesions: musculoskeletal ultrasound can accurately display bone exoplasia, bone erosion and bone occupying lesions (cysts, osteochondromas, osteosarcomas, etc.), and can detect hidden fracture lesions when examining soft tissue injuries. Musculoskeletal ultrasound can accurately measure the thickness of cartilage, judge the degeneration by detecting the intensity of cartilage echo, and sensitively detect the lesions such as calcification and cartilage destruction within the cartilage. Musculoskeletal ultrasound is highly reliable in detecting and evaluating the severity of cartilage lesions in joints, especially in small joints (such as metacarpophalangeal joints and interdigital joints).