Where medical science meets exercise, that is where Gainesvillians can find Dr. Melissa Cere, co-founder of Kinetix Physical Therapy. Her team of physical therapists represents one of the most professional therapeutic operations in Florida, offering an impressive range of complex testing procedures designed to root out the nature of injury. This time, the Guide to Greater Gainesville sat down with Dr. Cere to talk about diagnostic testing – from ultrasounds to EMGs, Kinetix is primed and ready to deliver patients the most accurate readings sports medicine can provide.
GGG: What kind of diagnostic testing do you perform at Kinetix?
MC: We perform Electromyography (EMG) and Nerve Conduction Studies as well as Musculoskeletal Ultrasound.
GGG: What is a musculoskeletal ultrasound, and what can it tell a physical therapist (PT) about joints and soft tissues?
MC: A musculoskeletal ultrasound is a form of diagnostic imaging that uses sonic waves to “see” the painful areas of the body, particularly ligaments, tendons, muscles and nerves. Ultrasound is a great tool to evaluate the extent of inflammation or swelling in a painful area and assess the integrity of the soft tissues around a joint. It can provide information similar to an MRI or CT scan, but one advantage of ultrasounds over these other common imaging studies is that with ultrasound we can watch the tissues and joint structures during movement and not just at rest.
With an ultrasound study we can visualize many common injuries such as tendon tears, ligamentous sprains and even muscle tears. Knowing specifically the extent of injury, swelling and inflammation present, a PT can make a more detailed treatment plan and progress that patient’s rehab more precisely according to the initial findings and continued rechecks with ultrasound.
GGG: What is an EMG, and what can it reveal about a patient’s muscles?
MC: Electromyography (EMG) is an electrodiagnostic study used to evaluate dysfunction of nerves, muscles and the signal transmission between nerves and muscles. An EMG is most often performed in conjunction with a nerve conduction study, which assesses how fast and how well your body’s electrical signals travel down a nerve’s path. These studies are often performed when a patient has numbness, tingling or radiating pain in their arms, legs, hands, feet or face, or when a patient notes muscle weakness, cramping or twitching.
GGG: What is the connection between muscles and nerve cells?
MC: Under normal circumstances, the brain sends electrical signals through your nerves to the muscle that you voluntarily choose to move and the muscle should respond to the signal with an adequate contraction to perform that movement. However, sometimes the signal can get interrupted for reasons such as injury, inflammation or compression around that nerve. That interruption may be occurring at the spinal cord level or somewhere down the associated limb. EMGs and nerve conduction studies can help pinpoint where along the path of the nerve the signal is getting interrupted so that it can be treated in the most appropriate way.
GGG: Are diagnostic tests like musculoskeletal ultrasounds and EMGs a typical part of PT care?
MC: The training required to perform musculoskeletal ultrasounds and EMGs is not part of your typical entry-level physical therapy degree programs. For physical therapists, they must undergo extensive education (usually involving a board-certified residency program) to learn the technical skills and clinical decision-making skills required to perform these types of diagnostics studies and evaluate the test findings to make appropriate treatment recommendations for patients.
We at Kinetix Physical Therapy are very proud to be the only physical therapy clinic in Gainesville offering these state-of-the-art diagnostic tests. With the use of these diagnostics tests, we are able to quickly and specifically isolate the source of a patient’s symptoms, monitor progress and healing over time, and provide precisely the necessary treatment plan to get the patient feeling better and back to their normal activities.
By Drew Mortier.