Pain-Mapping in Musculoskeletal Ultrasound – A Pilot Study with Initial Observations

Abstract

In addition pain-mapping allows quantification of the study giving the opportunity for assessment and documentation of change in progress studies.
Our early experience with pain-mapping has already revealed several novel concepts in MSK imaging which have led to altered treatments for these conditions:
• Our experience with pain-mapping of tendinopathy and tendon tears shows the pain rarely comes from the tear itself but rather the adjacent abnormal tendon.
• Pain-mapping of achilles tendon, and patellar tendon pathology suggests that the paratenon is an important source of pain.
• In the painful shoulder, pain-mapping reveals the role of coracoid enthesopathy.
• In lateral hip pain, pain-mapping has revealed the importance of the piriformis tendon in contributing to symptoms.
• In the case of chronic athletic groin pain, pain-mapping reveals different patterns between individuals who have presented with essentially common clinical signs and provides the option of more individualised treatment.
• Widespread high pain-mapping scores with no abnormality on imaging can suggest a diagnosis of fibromyalgia.