2000 Volume 24 Issue 3 Pages 341-344
Although magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is known to be useful for diagnosis of a rotator cuff tear, a system to obtain best images is still controversial. The purpose of this study is to determine the diagnostic performance of MRI including Gd-enhanced MRI in evaluation of a rotator cuff tear.
Materials and methods: The subjects were 41 shoulders (40 patients) with a rotator cuff tear that had had an MRI performed on before surgery,37 cases were complete tears and 4 cases incomplete. MRI's performed on oblique coronal plane and oblique sagittal plane of T1 and T2 weighted images in all cases. After an intravenous injection of Gd-DTPA,14 shoulders (10 complete tears,4 incomplete tears)underwent MRIs on the oblique coronal plane of T1 weighted images. Results and discussion. In 37cases with a complete tear confirmed by surgery, thirty-four were diagnosed as complete tears and the remaining 2 cases diagnosed as incomplete preoperatively. In 4 cases with an incomplete tear, two were diagnosed as complete tears and two diagnosed as incomplete. On Gd-enhanced images in 10cases with a complete tear, the stump was clearly enhanced in three, but not so clearly in six. Only the bursal side was enhanced in the remaining one. In 4 cases with incomplete tears, one with an articular side tear was not enhanced but three with a bursal side tears were clearly enhanced. Conclusion Although Gd-enhanced MRI for the diagnosis of rotator cuff tear was not clearly defined in this study, this technique might be, at least, useful for bursal side partial-thickness tear.
