Objective Evaluations of Muscle Hardness of the Shoulder Girdle

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the hardness of the shoulder girdle muscles objectively from the body surface.
Eighteen healthy adults were examined as standard (the healthy group). The comparative objects were nine adults who complained of stiffness of the trapezius (the stiffness group) and seventeen painful shoulders (the case group).
The measuring muscles were biceps brachii, pectraris major, triceps brachii, trapezius upper fiber, rhomboid, and back extensor. We measured 3 times from the body surface using a PEK-1 (Imoto's product) that measures muscle flexibility. From these data, we compared the hardness in other parts on the basis of the muscle hardness of biceps and triceps. Furthermore, we compared them with each group.
Hardness of the biceps and triceps has quite a high correlation with other parts only in the healthy group. By comparing other parts on the basis of the biceps and triceps, each group showed different patterns.