[Contribution of ultrasound in the diagnosis of rotator cuff rupture at the hospital of Béthune, France].

Aim: Describe the ultrasound aspects of rotator cuff tear by specifying the contribution of this technique in the shoulder scan.

Patients And Method: We conducted a prospective six-month analytical study from January 1, 2014 to May 31, 2014, on the rupture of the shoulder rotator cuff in the radiology department of the Béthune hospital center. Ultrasound examinations were performed using a Toshiba Aplion300 device using two linear probes of 13 and 15 Mhz. Data processing is done with SPSS 17.0 software. The Chi-square test was used to compare data with a significant threshold for p <0.05.

Results: Our work focused on 28 patients who had a cuff tear during the ultrasound examination. The age group between 50 and 59 years was the most represented, 32.1%. Ultrasound showed calcification tendinopathy of the rotator cuff in 46.4% of cases. The rotator cuff tears were present in the supraspinatus, infra-spinal and subscapular tendons in 96.4% (27 cases), 32% (9 cases) and 21.4% (6 cases), respectively. In 58.3% there was a transfixing rupture of the supraspinatus with 72.3% non-transfixing ruptures. Seven patients had supraspinous tendon retraction including 6 cases of retraction stage 1 and 5 cases of stage 2 retraction. The infraspinatus was the second tendon of the cuff affected with 9 cases (32%) followed by the subscapularis 6 cases (21, 4%). We did not record lesions (rupture or calcification) of Teres minor. Radiography was normal in 7 patients, ie 32%.

Conclusion: Ultrasonography, coupled with standard radiography, is the firstline examination in the imaging assessment of the symptomatic shoulder. It allows, as in our work, a better morphological analysis of tendon rotator cuff.