Sonography of chondral print on humeral head.

The aim of this study is to determine the diagnostic accuracy of sonography in order to identify the chondral print on the humeral head.Materials and methods In total, 44 patients who had already been candidates for arthroscopic surgery were prospectively studied with ultrasound to assess the presence of humeral subchondral erosion at the level of the biceps pulley; no pa- tient had undergone previous surgery or radiographic calcifi- cation of rotator cuff tendons. Using arthroscopy as the refer- ence standard the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive, negative predictive and diagnostic accuracy values were calculated.Results Of the 44 patients, arthroscopy showed the humeral chondral print in 30 patients. Of the 30 arthroscopy proven humeral chondral prints, ultrasound identified 28 subchondral erosions at the same level, with two false negatives. One of the 14 patients without arthroscopic humeral chondral print was positive for subchondral erosion at ultrasound. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive, negative predictive, anddiagnostic accuracy values of ultrasound were respectively of93,93,96,87and93%.Conclusion Ultrasound has a good diagnostic accuracy in identifying the chondral print sign.