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Aponeurotic expansion of the supraspinatus tendon and concomitant shoulder pathologies

  • Musculoskeletal
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A Correction to this article was published on 08 May 2023

This article has been updated

Abstract

Objectives

We investigated the correlation of aponeurotic expansion of the supraspinatus tendon (AESST) with shoulder pathologies such as long head of biceps tendon (LHB), supraspinatus tendon (SST), and subscapularis tendon (SSc).

Methods

We retrospectively evaluated 47 healthy patients and 163 patients with shoulder symptoms from August 2014 to March 2021. First, the presence of AESST was evaluated based on Moser et al.’s classification. Second, the presence of abnormal findings of including LHB tendinitis, LHB subluxation, SST tendinitis, SST tear, SSc tendinitis, and SSc tendon tear was evaluated. We analyzed the prevalence and type of AESST between the two study groups and the relationship between abnormal findings and the presence of AESST.

Results

The prevalence of AESST for readers 1 and 2 was 26.1% and 30.4% in the asymptomatic group, respectively, and 22.8% and 31.3% in the symptomatic group. Type 1 was most common (17.3–23.9%) followed by types 2a and 2b. There were no significant differences in the distribution of aponeurosis type between the two groups. In the AESST-positive groups, 45.9% and 47.1% had SST tears on examination by readers 1 and 2, respectively, whereas only 26.4% and 27.9% had SST tears in the AESST-negative group suggesting AESST is associated with SST tear. The odds ratio for SST tear in the presence of AESST was 2.370 and 2.294 (readers 1 and 2).

Conclusions

There is an association between SST tears and the presence of AESST.

Key Points

• We evaluated the prevalence of aponeurotic expansion of the supraspinatus tendon (AESST) on MR imaging by type in both symptomatic and asymptomatic groups.

• We investigated the correlation of AESST with shoulder pathologies such as biceps tendon and supraspinatus tendon tears.

• There is an association between SST tears and the presence of AESST.

• Radiologists should be aware of the risk of rotator cuff pathology if AESST is detected.

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Change history

Abbreviations

AESST:

Aponeurotic expansion of the supraspinatus tendon

LHB:

Long head of biceps tendon

MRI:

Magnetic resonance imaging

SST:

Supraspinatus tendon

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Funding

The authors state that this work has not received any funding.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, Kangbuk Samsung Hospital, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, #108 Pyung-Dong, Jongno-Gu, Seoul, 03181, Republic of Korea

    Wan Jo, Hee Jin Park, Ji Na Kim & Myung Sub Kim

  2. Department of Neurosurgery, Kangbuk Samsung Hospital, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Hyunchul Shin

  3. Department of Radiology, Korea University Anam Hospital, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Chang Ho Kang

Authors
  1. Wan Jo
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  2. Hee Jin Park
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  3. Ji Na Kim
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  4. Myung Sub Kim
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  5. Hyunchul Shin
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hee Jin Park.

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Guarantor

The scientific guarantor of this publication is Hee Jin Park.

Conflict of interest

The authors of this manuscript declare no relationships with any companies whose products or services may be related to the subject matter of the article.

Statistics and biometry

One of the authors (Myung Sub Kim) is an expert in statistics.

Informed consent

Written informed consent was waived by the Institutional Review Board.

Ethical approval

Institutional Review Board approval was obtained.

Methodology

• retrospective

• diagnostic or prognostic study

• performed at one institution

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The original online version of this article was revised: in the abstract, the sentence "We retrospectively evaluated 47 healthy patients and 163 patients with shoulder symptoms from January 2019 to February 2019" was corrected to read "We retrospectively evaluated 47 healthy patients and 163 patients with shoulder symptoms from August 2014 to March 2021".

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Jo, W., Park, H.J., Kim, J.N. et al. Aponeurotic expansion of the supraspinatus tendon and concomitant shoulder pathologies. Eur Radiol 33, 4782–4788 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-023-09399-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-023-09399-1

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