Musculoskeletal Flashcards
(14 cards)
Lost Indications
When do you do the musculoskeletal ultrasound?
- focal or diffuse swelling around joint, long bone, tendon or muscle belly
- atrophy of muscle
- palpable thickening of a tendon
- palpable defect of tendon or muscle belly
- abnormal ROM on a joint
- pain on manipulation of the joint
How must be the transducer places when checking ligaments or tendons with ultrasound?
The transducer must be perpendicular or parallel to the fiber pattern
What kind of probe you use for ligaments and tendons?
Linear probe
You should always compare the part you ultrasound to __________
The contralateral limb
How should you scan?
Longitudinally and also in transverse planes
What kind of transducer you should use?
High frequency transducer with 7.5 MHz or more
How do solid swellings appear?
They image as homogenous echogenic structures
When are solid swellings more difficult?
It is when they are heterogenic
Fluid filled structures like sterile cysts appear like?
What about some abscesses and cysts? What could be the problem with seeing them?
Sterile cysts have decreased echogenicity
The fluid might be as echogenic (isoechoic) as adjacent soft tissues
Trick to remember when we see fluid on a ultrasound?
What does that mean?
Ultrasound loves fluid
This fluid-filled structures create an acoustic enchantment artifact distal to their border
Normal muscle Looks Like?
How does the overlying fasciae look?
What problems you could see?
It is hypoechoic to anechoic with fine oblique striations
It looks like thin hyperechoic band
Muscle rupture
Cellulitis (looks stripy)
Adenocarcinoma
Normal tendons look like?
What are the common problems?
Medium echogenicity with parallel hyperechoic lines
Acute or chronic tenditis
Mineralization
Partial or complete rupture
What can you see in joints?
What are usually too small to see?
What are some problems we could see?
Bone surface
Articulate cartilage
Synovium
Synovial fluid
Ligaments are too small
Joint effusion Chronic synovitis Articular cartilage defect Joint mice Osteophytes
What does normal intact bone surface do?
___________line with distal___________
Problems we can see?
Impedes sound waves
Echogenic line with distal shadowing
Bone cysts Fractures Callus formation Osteomyelitis Neoplasia
