Sonographical parameters of the finger pulley system in healthy adults.
BACKGROUND
To establish normative values of tendon to bone distances (TBDs) to evaluate the A2 and A4 annular pulley integrity, we hypothesized that these values correlate with gender, athletic exercise, occupation, individual's age and body height.


METHODS
Ultrasonography of 200 healthy individuals was performed prospectively. TBDs for the A2 and A4 pulley sections were measured for all fingers. Evaluation was performed in resting position and active forced flexion. Examination parameters included gender, age, body height, occupation, athletic exercise level, and hand dominance. Assessment of resting position and active forced flexion was done.


RESULTS
No clinically relevant differences of TBDs with respect to the aforementioned parameters were observed. But TBDs were significantly greater in active forced flexion than in resting position for all measured pulley sections. Intraobserver reliability was very satisfactory.


CONCLUSIONS
Establishing normative values will help to detect injured pulleys more precisely and examination should be performed both in resting position and active forced flexion.
Department of Hand Surgery, Vulpius Klinik, Vulpiusstraße 29, 74906, Bad Rappenau, Germany.
Dominik
D
Bassemir
Department of Hand Surgery, Vulpius Klinik, Vulpiusstraße 29, 74906, Bad Rappenau, Germany.|Medical Faculty Mannheim of the Ruprecht-Karls University Heidelberg, Theodor-Kutzer-Ufer 1-3, 68167, Mannheim, Germany.
Frank
F
Unglaub
Department of Hand Surgery, Vulpius Klinik, Vulpiusstraße 29, 74906, Bad Rappenau, Germany.
Peter
P
Hahn
Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, University Hospital Cologne, Kerpener Str. 62, 50937, Cologne, Germany.
Lars Peter
LP
Müller
The Department of Medical Biometry and Informatics, Ruprecht-Karls University, Im Neuenheimer Feld 305, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany.
Thomas
T
Bruckner
Department of Hand Surgery, Vulpius Klinik, Vulpiusstraße 29, 74906, Bad Rappenau, Germany. christianspies27@gmail.com.
Christian K
CK
Spies
D000328:Adult; D001827:Body Height; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D005385:Fingers / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies; D016059:Range of Motion, Articular / Q000502:physiology*; D013710:Tendons / Q000502:physiology*
A2 annular pulley; A4 annular pulley; Exploratory study; Normative value; Ultrasonography