Diagnostic performance of ultrasound in patients with suspected brachial plexus lesions in adults: a multicenter retrospective study with MRI, surgical findings and clinical follow-up as reference standard

Purpose

To evaluate brachial plexus ultrasound (US) performance in a large multicenter study.

Materials and methods

The research was approved by the Institutional Review Boards, and all patients gave written informed consent. A multicenter retrospective trial including three centers was performed between March, 2006 and April, 2011. A total of 204 patients who received a brachial plexus ultrasound requested by the referring physician were enrolled: magnetic resonance imaging, surgical findings and clinical follow-up of at least 12 months were used as the reference standard. Sensitivity, specificity with 95 % confidence intervals (CIs), positive predictive value (PPV), pre-test-probability (the prevalence), negative predictive value (NPV), pre- and post- test odds (OR), likelihood ratio for positive results (LH+), likelihood ratio for negative results (LH-), accuracy and post-test probability (post-P) were reported on a per-patient basis.

Results

The overall sensitivity and specificity with 95 % CIs were: 0.76 (0.75–0.97); 0.96 (0.77–0.89). Overall PPV, pre-test probability, NPV, pre-OR, post-OR, LH+, LH-, Accuracy and post-P were: 0.93/0.43/0.84/0.75/0.75/13.4/17.6/0.25/0.88/0.93, respectively.

Conclusions

The specificity of brachial plexus US in patients suspected of having a brachial plexus lesion is very high.