Your shoulder feels fine at your side—but hurts when you raise your arm.
Your elbow snaps when you bend it.
Your ankle feels normal until a certain movement causes something to click or shift.
Sometimes pain, catching, snapping, or other symptoms simply aren’t there when the body is resting. They appear during movement.
That’s where dynamic musculoskeletal ultrasound can offer a different way of looking at the problem.
An MRI provides highly detailed images and is an important diagnostic tool for many musculoskeletal conditions. But MRI examinations are generally performed while the patient remains relatively still.
MSK ultrasound can provide something different: real-time imaging while certain structures are moving.
Depending on the area being examined, we may be able to watch a tendon glide, observe a muscle contract, follow the movement of a nerve, or evaluate what happens around a joint as the patient bends, straightens, rotates, or reproduces the motion that causes symptoms.
In other words, sometimes it helps to see the body doing the very thing that makes it hurt.
Our bodies weren’t designed to remain perfectly still.
Shoulders reach and rotate. Elbows bend. Wrists turn. Knees flex. Ankles move with every step.
When symptoms occur only during a particular movement or position, dynamic MSK ultrasound may provide information that complements other types of imaging.
It isn’t a question of whether ultrasound is “better” than MRI. Each has its strengths, and there are structures and conditions for which MRI or another imaging study may be more appropriate.
The advantage of MSK ultrasound is that when movement matters, we can often watch it happen.
MSK ultrasound is also safe, noninvasive, and uses no radiation.
At the Center for Musculoskeletal Ultrasound, every examination begins before the ultrasound probe is ever picked up.
We start by listening. Where does it hurt? What movement causes the symptoms? Does changing the position make the pain better or worse? Is there clicking, catching, snapping, weakness, or a sensation that something is moving differently than it should?
Michael Jablon, an expert in musculoskeletal ultrasound, begins with a focused history and a careful physical and positional examination, looking for the movements that reproduce your symptoms and the clues your body provides. This is referred to as the Jablon Protocol. Only then does he pick up the probe, using what he has learned to guide the ultrasound examination.
If your pain happens when you move, it can be valuable to evaluate the area while that movement is taking place.
Dynamic MSK ultrasound allows us to connect what you feel with what we can see in real time—helping identify what may be contributing to your symptoms and providing useful information to guide the next step in your care.
If something hurts, catches, clicks, or snaps when you move, it may be worth taking a closer look.
Center for Musculoskeletal Ultrasound
Orthopedic Ultrasound Inc.
949.229.7377
Westlake Village, California
