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

Objective: 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).

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