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Sonography of chondral print on humeral head

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Abstract

Objective

The aim of this study is to determine the diagnostic accuracy of sonography in order to identify the chondral print on the humeral head.

Materials and methods

In total, 44 patients who had already been candidates for arthroscopic surgery were prospectively studied with ultrasound to assess the presence of humeral subchondral erosion at the level of the biceps pulley; no patient had undergone previous surgery or radiographic calcification of rotator cuff tendons. Using arthroscopy as the reference standard the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive, negative predictive and diagnostic accuracy values were calculated.

Results

Of the 44 patients, arthroscopy showed the humeral chondral print in 30 patients. Of the 30 arthroscopy proven humeral chondral prints, ultrasound identified 28 subchondral erosions at the same level, with two false negatives. One of the 14 patients without arthroscopic humeral chondral print was positive for subchondral erosion at ultrasound. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive, negative predictive, and diagnostic accuracy values of ultrasound were respectively of 93, 93, 96, 87 and 93 %.

Conclusion

Ultrasound has a good diagnostic accuracy in identifying the chondral print sign.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Medicina e di Scienze della Salute, Università degli Studi del Molise, Campobasso, Italy

    Marcello Zappia & Luca Brunese

  2. Diagnostica Amato, San Marcellino, CE, Italy

    Michela Carfora

  3. Campolongo Hospital, Marina di Eboli, SA, Italy

    Alfonso Maria Romano

  4. Dipartimento Magrassi-Lanzara, Seconda Università degli Studi di Napoli, Napoli, Italy

    Alfonso Reginelli & Antonio Rotondo

  5. Humanitas Research Hospital, Rozzano, Milan, Italy

    Alessandro Castagna

Authors
  1. Marcello Zappia
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  2. Michela Carfora
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  3. Alfonso Maria Romano
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  4. Alfonso Reginelli
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  5. Luca Brunese
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  6. Antonio Rotondo
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  7. Alessandro Castagna
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marcello Zappia.

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Zappia, M., Carfora, M., Romano, A.M. et al. Sonography of chondral print on humeral head. Skeletal Radiol 45, 35–40 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00256-015-2238-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00256-015-2238-x

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