DIAGNOSIS OF PARTIAL AND COMPLETE ROTATOR CUFF TEARS USING COMBINED GRADIENT-ECHO AND SPIN-ECHO IMAGING

Most magnetic resonance (MR) studies evaluating the rotator cuff for t ears have used T2-weighted imaging in the coronal oblique and sagittal oblique planes. T2-weighted gradient echo imaging, however, has adva ntages over spin echo imaging, including con tiguous slices without cr oss-talk, high contrast around the cuff, and intrinsically shorter ima ging times which can be used to increase the number of signals average d and thus improve the signal-to-noise ratio. We reviewed the shoulder MR scans of 87 consecutive patients who underwent both a MR scan and a shoulder arthroscopy during which the size of tears, if present, was graded. The reviewers were blinded as to the history and arthroscopic results. The MR scans included oblique coronal T2-weighted gradient echo and oblique sagittal T2-weighted spin echo images. MR cuff grades were correlated with arthroscopic findings. For complete tears, the s ensitivity of MR was 0.91 and the specificity 0.95. For partial tears, the sensitivity was 0.74 and the specificity 0.87. This accuracy is s imilar to two-plane T2-weighted imaging as previously reported in the literature. There was a statistically significant correlation (p < 0.0 005) between the cuff grade as determined by MR and the arthroscopic f indings.