• J Manipulative Physiol Ther · Sep 2009

    Comparative Study

    Normative cross-sectional area of the brachial plexus and subclavian artery using ultrasonography.

    • Daniel W Haun, John C S Cho, Thomas B Clark, and Norman W Kettner.
    • Department of Radiology, Logan College of Chiropractic, Chesterfield, MO 63006-1065, USA. daniel.haun@logan.edu
    • J Manipulative Physiol Ther. 2009 Sep 1; 32 (7): 564-70.

    ObjectiveUltrasonography has been used to measure the cross-sectional area (CSA) of peripheral nerves, but the CSA of the brachial plexus has not previously been reported. The purpose of this study was to establish a reference range of values for the CSA of the brachial plexus, subclavian artery, and peak systolic velocity (PSV) of the subclavian artery in healthy subjects using ultrasonography.MethodsThirty-two asymptomatic subjects (19 men, 13 women) from a chiropractic college with an average age of 29.5 +/- 9.6 participated in the study. The brachial plexus and subclavian artery CSA were measured at 3 locations: interscalene, first rib, and infraclavicular. The PSV of the subclavian artery was measured in both supraclavicular and infraclavicular locations. Each subject was imaged bilaterally. Means and 95% confidence intervals were calculated. Interexaminer reliability was evaluated between 2 examiners on 15 randomly selected subjects.ResultsThe average CSA for the brachial plexus at the interscalene space, first rib, and infraclavicular location was 0.75 +/- 0.05, 0.96 +/- 0.07, and 0.98 +/- 0.07 cm(2), respectively. The average CSA for the subclavian artery at the same locations was 0.35 +/- 0.03, 0.38 +/- 0.03, 0.35 +/- 0.03 cm(2), respectively. The average subclavian artery PSV in supraclavicular and infraclavicular locations was 98 +/- 8 and 93 +/- 7 cm/s, respectively. The overall interexaminer reliability was poor at 0.39 (0.20-0.55).ConclusionsThis is the first study to obtain normative CSA measurements of the brachial plexus and subclavian artery in multiple locations of the thoracic outlet as well as interexaminer reliability data. These data may be beneficial in future studies designed to assess the brachial plexus and subclavian artery in patients with thoracic outlet syndrome.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…