ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Rehabil. Sci.
Sec. Rehabilitation for Musculoskeletal Conditions
Volume 6 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fresc.2025.1576890
The Clinical Utility of Musculoskeletal Ultrasonography in Hemiplegic Shoulder Rehabilitation Post-Stroke
Provisionally accepted
- 1Rujin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
- 2Shanghai Ruijin Rehabilitation Hospital, Shanghai, China
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Objective: This study aimed to assess the utility of musculoskeletal ultrasound (MSUS) in the rehabilitation of stroke patients with hemiplegic shoulder pain. Methods: We conducted a study involving 80 stroke patients with hemiplegia and concomitant shoulder pain on the affected side, admitted to our hospital between April 2020 and March 2021. MSUS was used to evaluate shoulder structures, including the long head of the biceps brachii tendon (BICT) and its sheath, rotator cuff, subacromial-subdeltoid (SA-SD) bursa, labrum, acromioclavicular ligament, acromiocoracoid ligament, and acromion-greater tuberosity (AGT) distance. We compared pre-and post-rehabilitation measurements of supraspinatus tendon (SST) thickness, BICT sheath effusion thickness, SA-SD bursa effusion thickness, AGT distance, and visual analogue scale (VAS) scores.Statistical significance was set at P < 0.05. Results: Post-rehabilitation, the SST thickness on the hemiplegic side showed a statistically significant reduction (P= 0.023).No significant difference was observed in the mean maximum rupture diameter (P = 0.796). Both BICT sheath effusion (P < 0.001) and SA-SD bursa effusion (P<0.001) exhibited significant decreases. The AGT distance on the hemiplegic side also demonstrated a statistically significant change (P< 0.001). Additionally, the VAS score significantly improved post-rehabilitation (P<0.001). Conclusion: MSUS is a feasible and reproducible tool for monitoring rehabilitation progress in stroke patients with hemiplegic shoulder pain.
Keywords: MSUS, Shoulder Pain, Rehabilitation, Hemiplegia, Stroke
Received: 14 Feb 2025; Accepted: 28 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liu, Pan, Bao, Huang and Hu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yunyun Hu, Rujin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
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