Does the outcome of diagnostic ultrasound influence the treatment modalities and recovery in patients with shoulder pain in physiotherapy practice? Results from a prospective cohort study.

Study Design: Prospective cohort study including patients with shoulder pain in primary care physiotherapy.

Background: There is an increased tendency to use diagnostic ultrasound to aid the diagnostic strategy and target treatment. It is a relatively cheap and accessible imaging technique but the implications for practice and patients are unknown.

Ultrasound imaging to tailor the treatment of acute shoulder pain: a randomised controlled trial in general practice.

Objective: To determine the clinical effectiveness of ultrasound tailored treatment in patients with acute subacromial disorders.

Design: Pragmatic randomised controlled trial.

Setting: Dutch general practice.

Ultrasound imaging for tailored treatment of patients with acute shoulder pain.

Purpose: The objective of this study was to assess the frequencies of ultrasound findings in patients with acute rotator cuff disorders in family medicine.

Methods: In a prospective observational study, 129 patients aged 18 to 65 years with acute shoulder pain in whom the family physician suspected rotator cuff disease underwent ultrasound imaging.

Results: Rotator cuff disease was present in 81% of the patients, and 50% of them had multiple disorders.

Ultrasound-diagnosed disorders in shoulder patients in daily general practice: a retrospective observational study.

Background: Ultrasound imaging (US) is considered an accurate and widely available method to diagnose subacromial disorders. Yet, the frequency of the specific US-diagnosed shoulder disorders of patients with shoulder pain referred from general practice is unknown. We set out to determine the frequency of specific US-diagnosed shoulder disorders in daily practice in these patients and to investigate if the disorders detected differ between specific subgroups based on age and duration of pain.

GPs' perspectives on the diagnostic work-up in patients with shoulder pain: a qualitative study.

Rationale, Aims And Objectives: The diagnostic work-up of patients with shoulder pain in general practice is complex. General practitioners' (GPs) guidelines advise a pragmatic diagnostic work-up in which additional imaging has a limited role. However, diagnostic ultrasounds are increasingly ordered by GPs, which seems to reflect complexity in management of shoulder pain.

Current management and prognostic factors in physiotherapy practice for patients with shoulder pain: design of a prospective cohort study.

Background: Shoulder pain is disabling and has a considerable socio-economic impact. Over 50% of patients presenting in primary care still have symptoms after 6 months; moreover, prognostic factors such as pain intensity, age, disability level and duration of complaints are associated with poor outcome. Most shoulder complaints in this group are categorized as non-specific.

The Maastricht Ultrasound Shoulder pain trial (MUST): ultrasound imaging as a diagnostic triage tool to improve management of patients with non-chronic shoulder pain in primary care.

Background: Subacromial disorders are considered to be one of the most common pathologies affecting the shoulder. Optimal therapy for shoulder pain (SP) in primary care is yet unknown, since clinical history and physical examination do not provide decisive evidence as to the patho-anatomical origin of the symptoms. Optimal decision strategies can be furthered by applying ultrasound imaging (US), an accurate method in diagnosing SP, demonstrating a clear relationship between diagnosis and available therapies.

Accuracy of diagnostic ultrasound in patients with suspected subacromial disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Objective: To determine the diagnostic accuracy of ultrasound for detecting subacromial disorders in patients presenting in primary and secondary care settings.

Data Sources: Medline and Embase were searched on June 9, 2010. In addition, the reference list of 1 systematic review and all included articles were searched to identify relevant studies.

Early student-patient contacts in general practice: an approach based on educational principles.

Background: Clinical teaching and learning is generally seen as an educationally sound approach, but the clinical environment does not always offer optimal conditions to facilitate students' learning processes.

Aims: To show how insights on constructing a good learning environment for student-patient contacts in real practice can be translated into an undergraduate clinical general practice programme in Year 3 and to study its feasibility.

Method: Literature search, yielding starting points for the development of the new programme and questionnaire evaluation of the programme.