title: Paraspinal ultrasonography: lack of accuracy in evaluating patients with cervical or lumbar back pain.
abstract: This study evaluates the ability of paraspinal ultrasonography to identify abnormal echogenicity in patients with cervical or lumbar back pain, or both. Paraspinal ultrasonography was performed on 82 subjects, including 23 asymptomatic controls. Echogenicity in the region of nerve roots and facets was assessed. Readings were correlated with location of patients' symptoms, if any. Receiver operating characteristic analysis demonstrated that evaluation of nerve roots by all four readers did not differ significantly from chance (0.07 < P < 0.99). Specificities ranged from 0 to 0.68. Kappa values were 0.06 for cervical and -0.06 for lumbar spine. Ultrasonography was unable to demonstrate abnormal echogenicity adjacent to facets in symptomatic patients. Paraspinal ultrasonography is neither accurate nor reproducible in evaluating patients with cervical and lumbar back pain.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19107-5244, USA.
authors.forename: L N
authors.initials: LN
authors.lastname: Nazarian
authors.forename: H G
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: Zegel
authors.forename: K R
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: Gilbert
authors.forename: S L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Edell
authors.forename: B L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Bakst
authors.forename: B B
authors.initials: BB
authors.lastname: Goldberg
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002574:Cervical Vertebrae / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D017116:Low Back Pain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D008159:Lumbar Vertebrae / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019547:Neck Pain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D015588:Observer Variation; D016017:Odds Ratio; D012372:ROC Curve; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013126:Spinal Nerve Roots / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D014463:Ultrasonography