An overview scan of the shoulder can identify some of the most common pathologies that cause acute and chronic shoulder pain such as rotator cuff tendinopathy and tears, joint effusion, and bursitis.
in patients presenting with shoulder pain though the shoulder is a complex joint a focus scan can quickly identify many pathologies on my differential diagnosis to perform a focused shoulder scan i'm going to use a linear scanner here on a shoulder or an msk preset and i'm going to start the scan and transverse here at the humeral head first i'm going to identify the biceps tendon and look for any joint effusions as black fluid right adjacent to the humeral head itself from here i like to bring the patient's arm behind their back to bring out the supraspinatus tendon and the rotator cuff interval attached to the bicep tendon seen here i'll follow the rotator cuff looking for any full thickness tears or calcifications along the tendon once satisfied i can bring their arm back into neutral identify the acromion here as a separate cortical shadow and in dynamic motion with this tendon in view i can take their arm back and forth through the full range of motion looking for any signs of impingement as we can see in this patient there was no obvious pathology identified you
