Investigation of the effectiveness of therapeutic ultrasound with high-resolution ultrasonographic cross-sectional area measurement of cervical nerve roots in patients with chronic cervical radiculopathy: a prospective, controlled, single-blind study

The purpose of our study was to evaluate the effects of therapeutic ultrasound (US) on chronic cervical radiculopathy (CR) patients using both the clinical parameters and the cross-sectional area (CSA) values of the cervical nerve roots (NR) measured by high-resolution ultrasonography (HRUS). Thirty-two patients with chronic CR were included in this prospective, controlled, and single-blind study. All of the patients received therapeutic US at continuous mode, 1-MHz frequency, and 1.5-W/cm(2) intensity for 10 sessions. The patients were assessed using VAS for pain, Modified Neck Disability Index, and Short-form 12, and cervical NR were examined with HRUS. The data were obtained before treatment (W0), the second week immediately after treatment (W2), and at the sixth week (W6). Twenty-nine patients and a total of 42 affected cervical NR and 42 unaffected cervical NR (control group) were evaluated. A significant improvement was observed for all clinical parameters and CSA values of affected cervical NR both at W2 and W6 compared to pre-treatment values (p < 0.05). We found therapeutic US to be beneficial in improvement of pain, disability, and quality of life of patients with chronic CR. We suggest that CSA measurements may also contribute to both diagnosis and post-treatment evaluation in chronic CR.