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Ann Thorac Surg 2007;83:1513-1516
© 2007 The Society of Thoracic Surgeons

New Technology

Measurement of Non-Physiological Movement in Sternal Instability by Ultrasound

Doa El-Ansary, BAppSc (Phty)a,*, Gordon Waddington, PhDa, Roger Adams, PhDb

a Department of Physiotherapy, School of Health Sciences, University of Canberra, Canberra, Australia
b School of Physiotherapy, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

Accepted for publication October 23, 2006.

* Address correspondence to Mr El-Ansary, c/o Roger Adams, Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Physiotherapy, University of Sydney, 2006, Australia (Email: doa.el-ansary{at}canberra.edu.au).

Purpose: Sternal instability, a complication arising for some patients after sternotomy for cardiac surgery affects their later quality of life and cost of care. However, there are currently few guidelines for its diagnosis, quantification, and monitoring. Ultrasound equipment with associated software for calculating selected video-monitor distances provides one way of quantifying the extent of sternal separation.

Description: This study evaluated the validity and reliability of an ultrasound measurement made by attaching the head of the unit to an extensible stand. First the procedure was tested with bony sterna, and second in the examination of the chests of 8 patients with sternal instability.

Evaluation: Reliability estimation of the ultrasound measure on bony sterna gave ICC (2, 1) values >0.99, and reliability estimates for the sternal separation measure in the patient group were ICC (2, 1) values between 0.90 and 0.93.

Conclusions: Therefore gap measurements taken by ultrasound can objectively reflect the extent of bony separation occurring in a group of cardiac surgery patients experiencing sternal instability.


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