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Sonography of the normal greater occipital nerve and obliquus capitis inferior muscle
Author(s) -
Suk Cho John Chin,
Haun Daniel W.,
Kettner Norman W.,
Scali Frank,
Clark Thomas B.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
journal of clinical ultrasound
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.272
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1097-0096
pISSN - 0091-2751
DOI - 10.1002/jcu.20693
Subject(s) - medicine , intraclass correlation , circumference , asymptomatic , anatomy , nuclear medicine , surgery , clinical psychology , geometry , mathematics , psychometrics
Background. To use sonography to measure the cross‐sectional area (CSA) of the greater occipital nerve (GON) and the adjacent obliquus capitis inferior muscle (OCI) in normal subjects. Methods. Data from 30 asymptomatic subjects between the ages of 22 and 35 were collected. CSA and circumference of the GON and CSA of OCI were measured using sonography. Interexaminer reliability analysis was performed using the intraclass correlation coefficient. Results. The CSA of the GON and OCI were 2 mm 2 ± 1 mm 2 and 1.86 cm 2 ± 0.51 cm 2 , respectively. The average circumference of the GON was 4.8 mm ± 1.3 mm. The interexaminer reliability of the measurements was excellent with intraclass correlation coefficient coefficients of 0.91, 0.84, and 0.73 for the GON CSA, GON circumference, and OCI CSA, respectively. Conclusion. We report the normal values of the CSA of the GON and OCI. Knowledge of these normal values may facilitate the diagnosis of GON entrapment and provide outcome measures in therapeutic interventions. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Ultrasound, 2010