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Ultrasound appearance and dynamic evaluation of variant long head of the biceps tendon anatomy with MRI correlation

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Abstract

Many variants of the long head of the biceps tendon exist but their appearance has not been documented with ultrasonography (US). We describe a case of variant LHB anatomy that was visualized by magnetic resonance imaging and confirmed with US. Additionally, US was useful to exclude instability of the LHBT. To the best of our knowledge, this variant appearance of the LHBT has not been previously described with US. Considering that shoulder US is routinely performed clinically, knowledge of the appearance of variant LHBT anatomy may be useful.

Riassunto

Esistono molte varianti del tendine del capo lungo del bicipite, ma il loro aspetto non è stato documentato con ecografia (US). Descriviamo un caso di variante anatomica del LHBT visualizzata con risonanza magnetica e confermata con gli US. Inoltre, gli US sono stati utili per escludere l’instabilità del LHBT. Per quanto a nostra conoscenza, questa variante del LHBT non è stata descritta in precedenza con gli US. Considerando che l’ecografia della spalla viene eseguita di routine nella pratica clinica, la conoscenza della variante anatomica del LHBT può essere utile.

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Fig. 1

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare they have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Informed consent

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000 (5). All patients provided written informed consent to enrolment in the study and to the inclusion in this article of information that could potentially lead to their identification.

Human and animal studies

The study was conducted in accordance with all institutional and national guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, Logan University, 1851 Schoettler Road, Chesterfield, MO, 63017, USA

    Patrick J. Battaglia, Aaron B. Welk & Norman W. Kettner

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  1. Patrick J. Battaglia
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  2. Aaron B. Welk
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  3. Norman W. Kettner
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Correspondence to Patrick J. Battaglia.

Electronic Supplementary Material

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40477_2014_125_MOESM1_ESM.wmv

Supplementary material 1 Online resource 1: Dynamic evaluation of the LHBT: Notice how the overlying deltoid muscle contracts with resisted elbow and arm flexion. The variant LHBT remains stable in the intertubercular sulcus (WMV 931 kb)

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Battaglia, P.J., Welk, A.B. & Kettner, N.W. Ultrasound appearance and dynamic evaluation of variant long head of the biceps tendon anatomy with MRI correlation. J Ultrasound 18, 187–189 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40477-014-0125-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40477-014-0125-2

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