Paraspinal ultrasonography: lack of accuracy in evaluating patients with cervical or lumbar back pain

This study evaluates the ability of paraspinal ultrasonography to identify abnormal echogenicity in patients with cervical or lumbar back pain, or both. Paraspinal ultrasonography was performed on 82 subjects, including 23 asymptomatic controls. Echogenicity in the region of nerve roots and facets was assessed. Readings were correlated with location of patients' symptoms, if any. Receiver operating characteristic analysis demonstrated that evaluation of nerve roots by all four readers did not differ significantly from chance (0.07 < P < 0.99). Specificities ranged from 0 to 0.68. Kappa values were 0.06 for cervical and -0.06 for lumbar spine. Ultrasonography was unable to demonstrate abnormal echogenicity adjacent to facets in symptomatic patients. Paraspinal ultrasonography is neither accurate nor reproducible in evaluating patients with cervical and lumbar back pain.