Clinical usefulness of sonoelastography in infants with congenital muscular torticollis

Abstract

Objective To evaluate the clinical usefulness of sonoelastography in infants with congenital muscular torticollis (CMT). Methods The medical records of 215 infants clinically diagnosed with CMT were retrospectively reviewed. Fiftythree infants met the inclusion criteria as follows: 1) infants diagnosed as CMT with a palpable neck mass before 3 months of age, 2) infants who were evaluated initially by both B-mode ultrasonography and sonoelastography, and 3) infants who had received physical therapy after being diagnosed with CMT. We checked the thickness of the sternocleidomastoid (SCM) muscles in B-mode ultrasonography, strain ratio of the SCM muscles in sonoelastography, and treatment duration. We evaluated the correlation between the treatment duration and the following factors: SCM muscle thickness, ratio of SCM muscle thickness on the affected to unaffected side (A/U ratio), and strain ratio. Results Both the thickness of the affected SCM muscle and the A/U ratio did not show significant correlation with the treatment duration (p=0.66, p=0.90). The strain ratio of the affected SCM muscle was significantly greater than that of the unaffected SCM muscle (p<0.001), and the strain ratio showed significant correlation with the treatment duration (p=0.001). Conclusion Sonoelastography may be a useful adjunctive tool to B-mode ultrasonography for evaluating infants with CMT, especially when predicting their rehabilitation outcomes.