Musculoskeletal ImagingTennis elbow
an injury to the lateral side of the elbow with pain overlying the radiohumeral joint. Repetitive rotatory forearm motion, compression and shearing lead to a chronic overuse syndrome involving the tendons at the elbow. Characteristically there is partial tearing of fibres within the extensor and sometimes flexor tendons from their epicondylar attachments. Abnormalities occur predominantly on the lateral side of the joint near the humeral epicondyle and capitulum. Periostitis and soft tissue oedema are common. On MR images regions of high signal intensity on T2-weighted spin-echo images of the
tendon, soft tissue and bone may be evident. On ultrasonography, hypoechoic extratendinous collections in muscle tears, fluid collections adjacent to the carpi radialis brevis in bursitis, and alterations in
tendon echogenicity and size in enthesopathy and tendinitis are seen.
DR