ANTEROINFERIOR TEARS OF THE GLENOID LABRUM - FAT-SUPPRESSED FAST SPIN-ECHO T2 VERSUS GRADIENT-RECALLED ECHO MR-IMAGES

Objective. To compare fat-suppressed fast spin-echo (FSE) T2-weighted images with gradient-recalled echo (GRE) T2-weighted images in the ev aluation of anteroinferior labral tears. Design. MR images were retros pectively reviewed by two radiologists masked to the history and arthr oscopic findings. They separately interpreted the anteroinferior labru m as torn or intact, first on one pulse sequence and then, 4 weeks lat er, on the other sequence. The MR interpretations were correlated with the arthroscopic findings. Patients. Nine patients with anteroinferio r labral tears, and nine similarly-aged patients with normal, labra we re studied. Results and conclusions. Observer 1 had a sensitivity of 0 .56 on the GRE images and 0.67 on the FSE images (P>0.5), with a speci ficity of 1.0 for both sequences. Observer 2 had a sensitivity of 0.78 and a specificity of 0.89 for both sequences. In this small study the re is no significant difference between GRE and fat-suppressed FSE ima ges in their ability to diagnose anteroinferior labral tears. When eva luating the labrum with conventional MRI, axial fat-suppressed FSE T2- weighted images can be used in place of GRE images without a loss of a ccuracy.