title: The accuracy of sonoelastography in fatty degeneration of the supraspinatus: a comparison of magnetic resonance imaging and conventional ultrasonography.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Sonolastography (SE) technique is one of the new functional ultrasonic imaging techniques, which was developed in the past few years and can obtain the distributions of elasticity in tissues. Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as the standard of reference, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the ability of SE to assess the fatty degeneration of suprasupinatus (SSP) and to compare it to the MRI and the conventional ultrasonography (US) findings.
  
  
  METHODS
  The institutional review board approved the study, and a retrospective analysis between January 2013 and September 2013 was performed on 101 shoulders of 98 consecutive patients using MRI, US, and SE for the evaluation of shoulder lesion. Oblique sagittal images of SSP were obtained using SE. The SE images were evaluated by reviewers using an experimentally proven color grading system.
  
  
  RESULTS
  When comparing SE to standard MRI findings, the mean sensitivity of SE was 95.6 %, the specificity 87.5 %, and the accuracy 91.1 %. The interobserver reliability of the SE findings was "almost perfect agreement" with a weighted kappa coefficient of 0.81. On comparing MRI with the SE findings, the grades of MRI and SE have a positive correlation (r = 0.855, P = <0.001). Furthermore, the grades of US and SE also have a positive correlation (r = 0.793, P = <0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  SE is valuable in the quantitative assessment of the severity of the fatty atrophy of the supraspinatus and has an excellent accuracy, an excellent correlation with MRI and the conventional US, and an excellent interobserver reliability.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Dankook University College of Medicine, 119, Dandae-ro Dongnam-gu, Cheonan-si, Chungnam 330-715 Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Joong-Bae
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Seo
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Dankook University College of Medicine, 119, Dandae-ro Dongnam-gu, Cheonan-si, Chungnam 330-715 Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Jae-Sung
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Yoo
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Dankook University College of Medicine, 119, Dandae-ro Dongnam-gu, Cheonan-si, Chungnam 330-715 Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Jee-Won
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Ryu
keywords: Fatty degeneration; Sonoelastography; Supraspinatus; Ultrasonogrphy