Disclosures: Luis Estrada: No financial relationships or conflicts of interest

Background and/or Objectives: Elasticity (stiffness) is a tissue’s ability to resist deformation from an applied force. Stiffness may be altered by various disease processes or injuries. Ultrasound (US) shear wave elastography (SWE) is a novel imaging tool and increasingly used to non-invasively measure mechanical properties of soft-tissues, such as muscle. Therefore, SWE can be helpful in understanding the effects of muscle activation, disease, and injury. The purpose of this scoping review is to describe the various technical aspects reported across SWE studies that examine hamstring muscle stiffness.

Design: This scoping review includes 32 SWE studies reporting on hamstring muscle stiffness and were identified from a larger initial scoping review of 390 studies (under review). Two people independently extracted information from each of the 32 articles on these variables: specific hamstring muscle, brand of ultrasound system, amount of probe pressure, level of operator training, avoidance of exercise before testing, use of electromyography, and depth of measurement.

Setting: Research Hospital

Participants: Participants; not applicable

Interventions: Interventions: not applicable

Main Outcome Measures: The percentage of articles that examine specific hamstring muscles as well as technical factors known to impact SWE values.

Results: Semitendinosus was the most common hamstring muscle examined, accounting for 72% of articles. Regarding the technical factors, Supersonic Imagine was the ultrasound system most often used (78%). Probe pressure descriptions were provided in 72% of articles whereas depth of measurement values were only provided in 3%. Operator training and exercise avoidance were only reported in 56% and 41% of articles, respectively. Surprisingly, only 25% of articles used electromyography to verify the absence of muscle activity during SWE measurements.

Conclusions: The lack of standardized SWE data collection and reporting procedures limits the possibility for SWE to serve as an objective tool for assessing muscle stiffness. Therefore, the authors recommend the need for SWE guidelines to improve future research ensure its replicability and reproducibility.

Level of Evidence: Level I

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PM&R Meeting Abstracts - https://pmrjabstracts.org/abstract/the-use-of-shear-wave-elastography-in-assessing-hamstring-muscle-stiffness-a-scoping-review/