Aim: Extracorporeal shockwave application (ESWA) is in clinical use to promote disintegration of symptomatic calcifications of the rotator cuff of the shoulder. However, disintegration of roentgenologically comparable calcifications of the rotator cuff is not always successfull. It is known from urologic stone lithotripsy that the susceptibility for disintegration of stone-like concrements depends on their mineral content. Therefore, in the present investigation the relative contents of calcium and phosphorus in rotator cuff calcifications were determined.
Method: 39 surgically removed rotator cuff calcifications were analyzed by means of atomic emission spectrometry.
Results: The relative content of calcium of the rotator cuff calcifications was found to be 22.3 % +/- 5.7 % (mean +/- SD; 6.8 % - 32.4 %), that of phosphorus as 10.5 % +/- 2.4 % (2.7 % - 14.4 %). The data neither depend on the gender of the patients nor on their age at the time point of surgical removal of the rotator cuff calcifications.
Conclusion: Roentgenologically comparable calcifications of the rotator cuff demonstrated distinct individual differences concerning the relative contents of calcium and phosphorus. The present results may serve as the first indication that the susceptibility of rotator cuff calcifications for disintegration may depend on their relative contents of calcium and phosphorus.