Disclosures: David Ivanov, BS: No financial relationships or conflicts of interest

Objective: Shear-wave Elastography (SWE) is an ultrasonographic technique which may aid musculoskeletal examinations as many disease processes cause muscle tissue alterations not detected by conventional imaging. This study will define normal values of deltoid muscle elasticity in healthy volunteers and examine repeatability of this technique while establishing scanning parameters and protocols.

Design: Elasticity (Kpa) of anterior, lateral, and posterior segments of deltoid muscle was measured by two independent examiners using SWE. Comparisons of measurements among the four age groups were evaluated using one-way analysis of variance and pairwise comparisons between age groups were conducted using Tukey’s studentized range tests. Setting : Academic center Participants : Ten healthy adults in 18-30, 31-40, 41-55, and 56+ age groups

Interventions: n/a

Main Outcome Measures: Inter- and intra-operator agreement for scanning technique Differences between the stiffness (Kpa) of regions of the deltoid muscle by age

Results: Inter-operator agreement was 0.57, 0.85, and 0.78 indicating moderate, almost perfect, and substantial agreement for the anterior, lateral, and posterior deltoid respectively. Intra-operator agreement ranged from 0.16 indicating slight agreement to 0.74 indicating substantial agreement. Anterior measurements differed significantly by age (p=0.019), although pairwise comparisons indicated that only age groups 18-30 and 56+ were significantly different from each other. Similarly, lateral measurements differed significantly by age (p=0.031), although only age groups 18-30 and 56+ were significantly different by pairwise comparison. Posterior measurements did not differ significantly by age (p=0.66). Conclusions: Intra-operator agreement of SWE of the deltoid demonstrated slight to substantial agreement while inter-operator agreement of SWE of the deltoid demonstrated moderate to near perfect agreement. Pairwise comparisons of the stiffness of the anterior and lateral deltoid showed a moderate degree of variability while also showing a clear difference in anterior and lateral deltoid muscle stiffness with increasing age. Further studies with alternate scanning parameters may be required to assure reproducibility among all age groups with SWE of the Deltoid muscle.

Level of Evidence: Level III

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PM&R Meeting Abstracts - https://pmrjabstracts.org/abstract/shear-wave-elastography-of-the-deltoid-muscle/