Correlation between shoulder muscle thickness and shoulder lesions in stroke patients with shoulder pain

LUO Yan; XU Shuang-jing; WANG Wei; GAO Fu-qiu; YAN Cheng-jie; CAO Hai-yan; HU Bao

doi:10.13820/j.cnki.gdyx.20250677

Abstract：Objective This study aimed to investigate the correlation between periscapular muscle thickness and the severity of shoulder lesions in stroke patients with shoulder pain.Methods A total of 50 inpatients with post-stroke shoulder pain admitted to Kunshan Rehabilitation Hospital between January 1 and December 31,2023,were enrolled.The affected side of each patient was designated as the experimental group,and the unaffected side as the control group.The epidemiological characteristics of shoulder lesions were analyzed.Muscle thickness around the shoulder was measured and compared between groups.Spearman correlation analysis was used to evaluate the relationship between periscapular muscle thickness and the severity of shoulder lesions.Results Among the included patients,9(18.00％)were classified as grade Ⅰ,31(62.00％)as grade Ⅱ,and 10(20.00％)as grade Ⅲ shoulder lesions.Compared with the control group,the affected side in the experimental group showed significantly lower resting thickness of the lower trapezius(LT)and serratus anterior(SA),and lower LT contraction thickness(P＜0.05).No significant changes were observed in the rest-ing thickness of the upper trapezius(UT)and middle trapezius(MT),nor in the contraction thickness of UT,MT,and SA(P＞0.05).Correlation analysis revealed that LT resting thickness(r=-0.467,P＜0.001),SA resting thickness(r=-0.655,P＜0.001),and MT resting thickness(r=-0.286,P=0.044)were negatively correlated with the se-verity of shoulder lesions.SA contraction thickness was also negatively correlated with shoulder lesion severity(r=-0.290,P=0.041).No significant correlation was found between UT resting thickness or UT,MT,and LT contraction thickness and shoulder lesion severity(P＞0.05).Conclusion Resting thickness of the LT and SA is significantly nega-tively correlated with the severity of shoulder lesions in stroke patients with shoulder pain,suggesting their potential value in assessing lesion severity.