The human body is a musculoskeletal structure of interconnecting systems, soft tissue, ropes, and pulleys that work together to keep us moving – commonly, these are your muscles, skeleton, joints, and tendons.
While a physical musculoskeletal physiotherapy assessment will highlight any external swelling or tenderness, it might not give a more in-depth internal answer to why someone is experiencing pain.
There is no limit to why you should consult a musculoskeletal screening service if you are experiencing pain, but the following are the most common conditions. They are all related to the connective tissues and are often caused by wear and tear, ageing, inflammation, or autoimmunity.
Tennis elbow, tendonitis, or ligament damage through a sporting injury
Osteoarthritis – inflammation of the joints
Arthritis – swelling or tenderness of the joints
Rheumatoid arthritis – chronic inflammation of the joints
Gout – inflammation of the joints due to an excess of uric acid
Fibromyalgia – chronic muscle pain and tenderness
Lung cancer – manifested by difficulty in breathing, coughing up blood, hoarseness, headaches, and weight loss
Lou Gherig’s disease – a progressive neurological disorder
Myasthenia gravis – a neuromuscular disorder
You can come for sporting injuries, pulled muscles or constant and unexplained aches and pain. The ultrasound scan will check for tendon, muscle and ligament tears or sprains, inflammation, benign and malignant soft tissue tumours, ganglion cysts, hernias, foreign bodies in the soft tissues, and soft tissue lumps.
Time will be taken with the sonographer to explore the area of pain with you, and you will be able to ask questions and direct the sonographer according to your pain and discomfort to really get to the root of the problem.
