in Diagnostic Medical

Repetitive strain injuries are beginning to be widely recognized as a serious occupational risk for sonographers. The goal of this study was to establish the incidence of musculoskel-etal symptomatology and repetitive strain in-juries in sonographers from Washington state and Oregon and to correlate certain physical attributes, work load, and work habits with the reporting rates of musculosketal symp-tomatology and repetitive strain injuries. The data for this study were gathered through a comprehensive questionnaire. Eighteen per-cent of respondents suffered no symptoms; 66 % suffered symptoms without repetitive strain injury, and 1 5 % were diagnosed with repetitive injury. The analysis revealed that a positive correlation exists between cer-tain ergonomically unsound work habits and increased symptomatology. The proportion of repetitive strain injury-diagnosed sonogra-phers tended to increase with more years in the profession. The reporting rate of muscu-loskeletal symptomatology and repetitive strain injuries also appeared to be influenced by other variables, such as gender, work load, and stress in the workplace. Key words: repetitive strain injuries, sonogra-pher, ultrasound. Repetitive strain injuries (RSIs) are a group of musculoskeletal disorders that most commonly in-volve the upper extremities and the torso. In ultra-sonography, these disorders most commonly result in aggravating symptoms of tension and pain in the affected areas, which may lead to disability. The purpose of this study was to identify the prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms and RSIs in the sam-ple population and attempt to correlate certain physical attributes, work load, and work habits with the reporting rates of musculoskeletal symptom-atology and RSIs in the respondents. Repetitive strain injuries have gained increasing media attention in the 1990s, which may be a result of disturbing statistics from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, which has recognized RSIs as the leading occupational disease in the Unite