Increased Upper Trapezius Muscle Stiffness in Overhead Athletes with Rotator Cuff Tendinopathy

Although excessive tension of the upper trapezius (UT) is thought to contribute to rotator cuff tendinopathy, no study examined UT tension in athletes with and without rotator cuff tendinopathy. Here we used UT shear modulus measured using ultrasound shear wave elastography as an index of muscle sti...

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Main Authors:	Leong, Hio Teng, Hug, François, Fu, Siu Ngor
Format:	Online
Language:	English
Published:	Public Library of Science 2016
Online Access:	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4861275/

id	pubmed-4861275
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	pubmed-48612752016-05-13 Increased Upper Trapezius Muscle Stiffness in Overhead Athletes with Rotator Cuff Tendinopathy Leong, Hio Teng Hug, François Fu, Siu Ngor Research Article Although excessive tension of the upper trapezius (UT) is thought to contribute to rotator cuff tendinopathy, no study examined UT tension in athletes with and without rotator cuff tendinopathy. Here we used UT shear modulus measured using ultrasound shear wave elastography as an index of muscle stiffness/tension. The aims of this study were twofold: 1) to determine whether the UT muscle shear modulus is altered in athletes with rotator cuff tendinopathy compared to asymptomatic athletes, and 2) to detect optimal cut-off points of UT shear modulus in identifying athletes with rotator cuff tendinopathy. Forty-three male volleyball players (17 asymptomatic and 26 with rotator cuff tendinopathy, mean age = 22.9±3.5 years) participated in the study. UT shear modulus was quantified during active arm holding at 30° and 60° of shoulder abduction and passive arm positioning at 0°, 30° and 60° of shoulder abduction. During the active tasks, the UT shear modulus was higher in athletes with rotator cuff tendinopathy than the asymptomatic athletes (p = 0.002), regardless the arm position. During the passive tasks, athletes with rotator cuff tendinopathy exhibited a higher UT shear modulus than asymptomatic athletes only at 0° of shoulder abduction (13.0±2.5 kPa vs 10.2±1.8 kPa, p = 0.001). When considering the active task, an optimal cut-off shear modulus of 12.0 kPa at 30° of shoulder abduction (sensitivity = 0.84, specificity = 0.57, AUC = 0.757, p = 0.008) and 9.5 kPa at 60° of shoulder abduction (sensitivity = 0.88, specificity = 0.67, AUC = 0.816, p = 0.002) was detected. When considering the passive task at 0° of shoulder abduction, a cut-off of 12.2 kPa was found (sensitivity = 0.73, AUC = 0.817, p = 0.001). Findings from the present study show that monitoring passive and active UT muscle shear modulus may provide important information for the prevention/rehabilitation of rotator cuff tendinopathy. Public Library of Science 2016-05-09 /pmc/articles/PMC4861275/ /pubmed/27159276 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0155187 Text en © 2016 Leong et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
repository_type	Open Access Journal
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building	NCBI PubMed
collection	Online Access
language	English
format	Online
author	Leong, Hio Teng Hug, François Fu, Siu Ngor
spellingShingle	Leong, Hio Teng Hug, François Fu, Siu Ngor Increased Upper Trapezius Muscle Stiffness in Overhead Athletes with Rotator Cuff Tendinopathy
author_facet	Leong, Hio Teng Hug, François Fu, Siu Ngor
author_sort	Leong, Hio Teng
title	Increased Upper Trapezius Muscle Stiffness in Overhead Athletes with Rotator Cuff Tendinopathy
title_short	Increased Upper Trapezius Muscle Stiffness in Overhead Athletes with Rotator Cuff Tendinopathy
title_full	Increased Upper Trapezius Muscle Stiffness in Overhead Athletes with Rotator Cuff Tendinopathy
title_fullStr	Increased Upper Trapezius Muscle Stiffness in Overhead Athletes with Rotator Cuff Tendinopathy
title_full_unstemmed	Increased Upper Trapezius Muscle Stiffness in Overhead Athletes with Rotator Cuff Tendinopathy
title_sort	increased upper trapezius muscle stiffness in overhead athletes with rotator cuff tendinopathy
description	Although excessive tension of the upper trapezius (UT) is thought to contribute to rotator cuff tendinopathy, no study examined UT tension in athletes with and without rotator cuff tendinopathy. Here we used UT shear modulus measured using ultrasound shear wave elastography as an index of muscle stiffness/tension. The aims of this study were twofold: 1) to determine whether the UT muscle shear modulus is altered in athletes with rotator cuff tendinopathy compared to asymptomatic athletes, and 2) to detect optimal cut-off points of UT shear modulus in identifying athletes with rotator cuff tendinopathy. Forty-three male volleyball players (17 asymptomatic and 26 with rotator cuff tendinopathy, mean age = 22.9±3.5 years) participated in the study. UT shear modulus was quantified during active arm holding at 30° and 60° of shoulder abduction and passive arm positioning at 0°, 30° and 60° of shoulder abduction. During the active tasks, the UT shear modulus was higher in athletes with rotator cuff tendinopathy than the asymptomatic athletes (p = 0.002), regardless the arm position. During the passive tasks, athletes with rotator cuff tendinopathy exhibited a higher UT shear modulus than asymptomatic athletes only at 0° of shoulder abduction (13.0±2.5 kPa vs 10.2±1.8 kPa, p = 0.001). When considering the active task, an optimal cut-off shear modulus of 12.0 kPa at 30° of shoulder abduction (sensitivity = 0.84, specificity = 0.57, AUC = 0.757, p = 0.008) and 9.5 kPa at 60° of shoulder abduction (sensitivity = 0.88, specificity = 0.67, AUC = 0.816, p = 0.002) was detected. When considering the passive task at 0° of shoulder abduction, a cut-off of 12.2 kPa was found (sensitivity = 0.73, AUC = 0.817, p = 0.001). Findings from the present study show that monitoring passive and active UT muscle shear modulus may provide important information for the prevention/rehabilitation of rotator cuff tendinopathy.
publisher	Public Library of Science
publishDate	2016
url	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4861275/
_version_	1613577182239522816

Increased Upper Trapezius Muscle Stiffness in Overhead Athletes with Rotator Cuff Tendinopathy

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