MSK Ultrasound No Longer New Kid On The Block

Statistics are a way of quantifying things and are ubiquitous in our world.  Seldom have I seen numbers like these concerning the rise in popularity of a form of medical ultrasound namely MSK.  When you think about the utility of ultrasound in the diagnosis and treatment of bone and muscle ailments, it makes perfect sense.  Please note these numbers are only from Medicare.  Thanks Auntminnie



http://www.auntminnie.com/index.aspx?sec=sup&sub=ult&pag=dis&itemId=98150



Medicare MSK ultrasound use by provider type

	2000	2009	Change
Radiologists	40,877	91,022	123%
Podiatrists	3,920	76,332	1,874%
Rheumatologists	176	22,581	12,730%
Primary care physicians	4,675	13,271	184%
All other providers	7,606	30,758	304%

Do ultrasound measurements correlate with CT and MRI?

I found an interesting article the other day which talked about correlating ultrasound measurements of kidney tumors with CT and MRI measurements.  When I thought about it, it made sense to do this study.  If ultrasound measurements correlate well with these other modalities, why not use ultrasound to monitor the effects of chemotherapy on kidney tumors and other masses.  Ultrasound costs much less, and does not use ionizing radiation.  Why not use ultrasound on all sonographically visible tumors to monitor the effects of therapy?

Objective

To evaluate whether ultrasonography was inferior in detecting the size of a renal mass preoperatively because of the increased attention on the harmful effects of ionizing radiation in medical imaging.

http://www.goldjournal.net/article/S0090-4295%2811%2902465-4/abstract