. . .what I'm getting from that report is that the med professionals thought you had a degree of nerve root pressure--that is the definiton of radiculopathy: dysfunction of the nerve roots that are the first peripheral nerves outside the spinal cord proper.

Many things can cause radicular (from the Latin for "root") pressure in the cervical area, though the most common cause in people our age are either bulging or herniated discs that deform (or even rupture) and put pressure on the nerve roots, or arthritic changes in the cervical spinal bones themselves that pressure the roots, often by narrowing the space (the foramen) through which the nerve travels on its way away from the spine. In my case, there is MRI evidence on the right side, at the C6/C7 level, of foraminal narrowing due to arthritic bony buildup there; this dovetails nicely with the symptoms I've been experiencing, as certain positions close the space just enough to pressure the nerve root and produce my sensory dysethesia, apparently. The effect is exacerbated if the nerve root becomes inflamed, as that expands its size and makes it easier to pressure. Part of the reason, I'm sure, that traction was recommended for me was to try and widen that foraminal opening enough to stop pressuring the root, and allow inflammation to subside. (I've had only two sessions as of Sundya the 14th, so it's hard to tell if it's working yet.)

Radiculopathy can be caused by trauma as well, and my neural symptoms started after the muscle tear in my right shoulder area. Many neuros will say that a cervical radiculopathy itself might cause referred muscular shoulder pain, but mine was abrupt and absolutely connected with my weightlifting; the neural symptoms came after, and I'm going for a shoulder MRI this Tuesday to check out if I'm getting additional pressure on the nerves farther down, past the cervical area, in the brachial plexus where the nerves pass form the body into the arm and shoulder. It certainly FEELS like my right shoulder muscles are tight and that the scapula (shoulder blade) has been pulled out of position.

Dr. Salgado ordered the MRI; he noticed the shoulder/back tightness, which has persisted despite physical therpay (mostly TENS and ultrasound), and he was concerned that the pulse in my right wrist varied a bit in intensity when my arm was held in different positions. He was wondering about some degree of Thoracic Outlet Syndrome (or variant)--that's what your doc was looking for with the Adson's maneuver. (Thoracic outlet syndrome occurs when the area through which blood vessels and nerves pass from body to shoulder to arm--the area, basically, between the shoulder blade and armpit--is constricted to a point that one experiences vascular or neurological symptoms, or both. This can be caused by a trauma to the area narrowing an already congentially small outlet, or by arthritic calcium additions to the bones in the area.) A bruit is an unusual sound in an artery made when blood that is constricted by some obstruction then rushes past it; if this was heard near your clavicle region it would be logical to suspect the doctor would want to look closely at your rotator cuff--injury there usually involves a displacement and inflammation of the muscles or tendons in the area, and that may well pressure arteries. But a torn rotator cuff is not the same as a cervical radiculopathy, though it's certainly feasible that the former might displace enough structures to pressure nerves in the area, especially if one is already prone to pressure effects on nerves (and diabetics are especially prone to compressive nerve effects). AND--trauma to that area might result in BOTH rotator cuff and cervical spine injury.

The problem is that the weakness caused by rotator cuff injury, which is muscular in origin, can be mimicked by weakness that originates from nerve compression, although the latter will usually be accompanied by other neural symptoms. This is one reason a savvy neuro will want to EMG/NCV the whole shoulder/arm/paraspinal muscles up the neck, to see if there is any nerve signal disruption to the muscle, and if so, where.

I'm glad you no longer get that nerve tingling down the arm--apparently, your inflammation/nerve root pressure reduced to the point where these subsided (and I hope it stays that way).

BTW, "dysdiadochokinesia" is a very long word that means inability to perform rapid, alternating movements, such as the fingertip to nose touching that neuros and cops testing for inebriated drives are fond of. I'm glad you showed no signs of that; while one can have trouble doing such things with muscle injury, it's far more likely to result from cerebellar lesioning (it's characteristic of ataxia, and seems to result from the inability to switch on and off antagonizing muscle groups).

You probably have chronic muscle tightness in the rotator area, and the area does tend to get even less resilient with age. And you may have torn part of the rotator cuff, which is the sort of thing which doesn't tend to get better by itself--and repetitive motion can make it worse (think baseball pitchers). I certainly think you should get an MRI of that area if at all possible (maybe at a stand-up MRI center?), as that is the modality that can look at soft tissue as well as bone.