الفهرس 
AnatomyOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
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SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
Pathologic conditions of the iliopsoas muscles or contiguous tissue result in varying clinical signs and symptoms that are often mistaken as indicia of other conditions (e.g., gastroenteritis, appendicitis, renal colic, hip joint pathology, and pulled muscles. Because there maybe no visible signs of disease, they may escape detection by the examining clinician. Before the advent of the newer imaging techniques, the iliopsoas muscles were poorly evaluated by the radiologist as well (Weinreb, 1985).
The plain radiograph is neither sensitive nor specific in assessment of disease processes involving the psoas muscle. Both psoas margins may be poorly visualized or not visualized in a substantial number of normal subjects (Elkin, 1962).
Furthermore, pathologic conditions involving the medial aspect of the psoas muscle cannot be initially identified on plain radiographs (Lee et al., 1989).
The introduction of high-resolution U/S has facilitated the non invasive evaluation of the muscles and has had a profound impact on the diagnosis and management of iliopsoas disease (Kumaris et al., 1979).
U/S imaging is simple and unexpensive in multiple planes, and can be done repeatedly on follow up examinations. Nevertheless, U/S study of the retroperitoneum has several limitations. In some patients the psoas muscles are difficult to identify sonographically because of overlying gas or body habitus (e.g., obesity or scoliosis), and the iliacus muscles are even more difficult to examine.