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Usefulness of ultrasound in diagnosing long head of the biceps tendon malposition in patients with rotator cuff tears

  • Original Article–Orthopedics
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A Publisher Correction to this article was published on 15 April 2022

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Abstract

Purpose

This study aimed to determine the role of preoperative shoulder ultrasonography (SUS) in detecting positional abnormalities of the long head of the biceps tendon (LHBT) and predicting subscapularis (SSC) tears in patients with rotator cuff injuries.

Methods

A total of 331 patients (365 shoulders) who had undergone arthroscopic shoulder surgery for the treatment of rotator cuff tears were included in the study. Their preoperative SUS and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings were examined retrospectively to assess the presence of LHBT abnormalities at the bicipital groove. Using arthroscopic findings as the standard of reference, the sensitivity, specificity, and diagnostic accuracy of SUS and MRI were calculated for detection of LHBT malposition. Furthermore, the correlation between SSC rupture and preoperative LHBT condition was evaluated by MRI and SUS.

Results

LHBT malposition was preoperatively diagnosed with a sensitivity of 92%, specificity of 90%, and accuracy of 91% with SUS, and a sensitivity of 74%, specificity of 84%, and accuracy of 80% with MRI. Preoperative SUS was significantly superior to MRI in terms of sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy (p < 0.001 each). Further, the preoperative SUS LHBT findings could predict well the presence or absence of intraoperative SSC rupture (odds ratio: 1.73, p < 0.001).

Conclusion

SUS is a useful diagnostic modality for preoperative detection of LHBT malposition and prediction of SSC tears in patients with rotator cuff tears.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical Laboratory, Uda City Hospital, 815 Haibarahagihara, Uda, Nara, 633-0298, Japan

    Yoshiko Fujiwara, Syuichi Yamamoto & Yumi Kato

  2. Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Uda City Hospital, 815 Haibarahagihara, Uda, Nara, 633-0298, Japan

    Shimpei Kurata, Shuhei Fujii, Kazuya Inoue, Takamitsu Mondori & Yoshiyuki Nakagawa

  3. Department of Evidence-Based Medicine, Institute for Clinical and Translational Science, Nara Medical University Hospital, 840 Shijo-cho, Kashihara, Nara, 634-8522, Japan

    Takashi Inoue

  4. Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Nara Medical University, 840 Shijo-cho, Kashihara, Nara, 634-8522, Japan

    Yasuhito Tanaka

Authors
  1. Yoshiko Fujiwara
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  2. Syuichi Yamamoto
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  3. Yumi Kato
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  4. Shimpei Kurata
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  5. Shuhei Fujii
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  6. Kazuya Inoue
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  7. Takashi Inoue
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  8. Takamitsu Mondori
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  9. Yoshiyuki Nakagawa
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  10. Yasuhito Tanaka
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yoshiko Fujiwara.

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Conflict of interest

Yoshiko Fujiwara, Syuichi Yamamoto, Yumi Kato, Shimpei Kurata, Shuhei Fujii, Kazuya Inoue, Takashi Inoue, Takamitsu Mondori, Yoshiyuki Nakagawa, and Yasuhito Tanaka declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Ethical statement

All procedures were in accordance with the ethical standards imposed by the Uda City Hospital Ethics Committee (R3UHRNo005), as well as the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki (1964) and its later amendments.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study.

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The original online version of this article was revised: The Publisher regrets the following error in figure 1 where the label of the figure was published incorrectly. The correct figure is given in this correction.

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Fujiwara, Y., Yamamoto, S., Kato, Y. et al. Usefulness of ultrasound in diagnosing long head of the biceps tendon malposition in patients with rotator cuff tears. J Med Ultrasonics 49, 289–295 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10396-022-01200-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10396-022-01200-y

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