腱板部分断裂におけるMRI診断

抄録

MRI is very useful for the diagnosis of the rotator cuff tear. However, in case of partial tears it is sometimes controvertible.
In this study, we studied the accuracy of MRI in the diagnosis of partial tears.
67 patients who underwent MRI investigation before operation were chosen for this study. There were 61 males and 6 females, ranging from 30 to 80 years (mean: 54.8 years at the time of operation). MRI was performed with 1.5T superconductive system with shoulder surface coil. MPGR T2*-weighted images were performed in the coronal oblique and sagittal oblique planes. complete tears were diagnosed when full thickness high intensity was observed in the rotator cuff, whereas with partial high intensity of the rotator cuff, was considered as partial tears.
MRI demonstrated 77.8% sensitivity, 91.4% specificity and 89.6% accuracy in the diagnosis of partial tear. In 8 cases MRI had misinterpretation.
In MPGR T2*-weighted images, not only the partial tears but the degenerative changes also show high intensity of the rotator cuff. Therefore, it is difficult to differentiate and maybe this is the reason of misinterpretations of partial tears by MRI.
MRI provided with useful pre-operative informations of partial tears of the rotator cuff. However, in few cases it is hard to differentiate for the degenerative changes of the rotator cuff.