AI Article Synopsis

  • The study evaluated the reliability and effectiveness of the Swimmer Arm-to-Shoulder (SAS) test to differentiate between shoulder impingement and cervical radiculopathy in patients with shoulder pain lasting up to 12 weeks.
  • In a sample of 718 patients, the SAS test showed high accuracy, with a sensitivity of 89.2% and specificity of 96.1%, effectively identifying the underlying causes of shoulder pain.
  • The results concluded that the SAS test is a simple, dependable tool for both screening and confirming diagnoses related to shoulder and cervical spine conditions.

Article Abstract

Background: Several tests have been suggested for screening and diagnosis of cervical spine and shoulder girdle conditions underlying shoulder pain with variable degrees of clinical accuracy. The present study aimed to test the reliability, clinical benefit and screening value of the Swimmer Arm-to-Shoulder (SAS) test; a new clinical test developed to differentiate shoulder impingement from cervical radiculopathy in patients with shoulder pain of ≤ 12 weeks.

Methods: The study included 718 patients aged 40-65 years, with unilateral and localized shoulder girdle pain lasting for ≤ 12 weeks. Diagnosis based on clinical, electromyography and radiological findings was considered as the reference gold standard for test assessment.

Results: Clinical diagnosis identified shoulder pathology in 288 patients (40.1%) and cervical spine pathology in 430 patients (59.9%). SAS test was positive in 274 patients (38.2%). The SAS test proved to be effective in distinguishing shoulder from cervical spine pathology with a sensitivity of 89.2% (95% CI: 85.0-92.6%), specificity of 96.1% (95% CI: 93.8-97.7%), PPV of 93.8% (95% CI: 90.5-96.0%), NPV of 93.0% (95% CI: 90.5-94.9%), LR + of 22.6% (95% CI: 14.1-36.0%), LR- of 0.11 (95% CI: 0.08-0.16) and accuracy of 93.3% (95% CI: 91.2-95.0%).

Conclusions: SAS test is an easy to perform, patient dependent and reliable as a screening test and diagnosis confirmatory test.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11580640PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12891-024-08013-9DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

cervical spine
16
sas test
16
spine pathology
12
shoulder pain
12
test
10
shoulder
9
swimmer arm-to-shoulder
8
shoulder cervical
8
patients shoulder
8
shoulder girdle
8

Similar Publications

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!