The supraspinatus is the most commonly damaged structure in rotator cuff muscles in overhead sports. Supraspinatus injuries affect its strength causing atrophy and reduce shoulder functionality. Ultrasonography imaging (US) provides information on the supraspinatus morphological features, such as muscle thickness (MT). The ability to perform assessment of supraspinatus MT on dominant and non dominant shoulders on tennis players -as overhead athletes- has not been studied and may be of value in assessment and treatment. The purpose of this cross sectional study was to evaluate the differences in the supraspinatus MT between the dominant and non-dominant shoulder on tennis players using brightness-mode US. US images from the supraspinatus MT were recorded in 20 young asymptomatic adult tennis players playing competition level tennis. Standardized methods in the literature were used to gather US measures on both shoulders. Mean differences were examined using t-test for paired samples. The supraspinatus MT of the dominant shoulder was 2.11±0.53cm and that of the non-dominant 1.38±0.30cm. Significant statistical differences were observed on the dominant shoulder compared with the non-dominant one (t=5.070, [2-tailed] p The current findings indicate that supraspinatus MT differences using US could provide quantitative measures in tennis players' dominant and non-dominant shoulders. So, US evaluation may be considered as an outcome measure for assessing supraspinatus atrophy or hypertrophy in rehabilitation and training regimes.
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