RESUMEN
Background: Injuries to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in sports are frequent in children and young adults participating in sporting activities involving rotational and pivoting movements. Magnetic resonance imaging is the most accurate diagnostic tool to detect an ACL tear. There are, however, a number of specialized tests available to assess ACL competency. Hypothesis: A novel test was described with extremely high clinical accuracy. The purpose of this study was to assess its clinical accuracy when performed by non-orthopedic providers, such as medical students. Methods: A cross-sectional study design was adopted, and two patients with an MRI-proven complete ACL tear were selected. One patient was thin, and the other was overweight, and both were examined by 100 medical students for both the injured and uninjured knee. The results for these exams were recorded, and a statistical analysis of the screening test was done to evaluate the new special test. Results: Our results were different from the ones found in the literature: we found the test to have a significantly lower performance in terms of sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative likelihood ratios compared to the literature numbers. Conclusion: The Lever sign (Lelli's) test loses clinical credibility and significance when performed by non-orthopedic providers or doctors, such as medical students in our study.
RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is characterized by pain in combination with sensory, vasomotor, sudomotor, trophic and motor abnormalities. The diagnosis of CRPS is based primarily on clinical criteria and the presence of distinct signs and symptoms. The role of bone scintigraphy in the diagnosis of these patients has been limited by its variable sensitivity. In this study, we aim to look if the presence of specific symptoms or symptom subgroups in patients with clinically diagnosed CRPS correlates with scintigraphic findings in bone scan. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed clinical records of patients referred for bone scintigraphy with the clinical diagnosis of CRPS during the period December 2006 until February 2011. Patients were classified into 4 distinct subgroups according to the presence of specific symptoms namely sensory subgroup, sudomotor and/or edema subgroup, vasomotor subgroup and finally motor and/or trophic changes subgroup. We looked specifically for the correlation between these specific symptoms and scintigraphic bone findings. RESULTS: 37 patients were referred for bone scintigraphy with the clinical diagnosis of CRPS and were enrolled in the study. The presence of vasomotor symptoms and (motor and/or trophic changes) was significantly higher in patients with positive bone scintigraphy (P value 0.0133, 0.018 respectively). There was no other statistically significant correlation between the presence of specific symptoms or symptom subgroups on one hand and the result of bone scintigraphy on the other hand. CONCLUSIONS: The probability of positive bone scintigraphy increased significantly in patients with vasomotor symptoms and in patients with motor and/or trophic changes. This may contribute to the reported variability of the diagnostic performance of bone scintigraphy in CRPS patients.