Dr. Amith R
BACKGROUND Rotator cuff unit plays an important role in the normal functioning of the shoulder joint and any injury to these muscles will lead to potential clinical consequences. Hence, it is necessary to understand its anatomy, functioning and to identify any deviation from its normal pattern in imaging. For this, MRI of shoulder joint gives us the required information in detail without actually subjecting the patients to ionizing radiation. MATERIALS AND METHODS Data source was the patients referred to the Department of Radiodiagnosis, MVJ Medical College and Research Hospital, Bangalore. The study included 30 patients, both male and female, with shoulder joint pain on clinical examination. The study period was from November 2015 to October 2017. MRI was performed using a 1.5 tesla MRI scanner (Siemens MAGNETOM ESSENZA). RESULTS The age of patients with rotator cuff pathologies ranged from 11 to 80 years. Males (70%) were most commonly affected compared to females (30%). The most commonly affected tendon was supraspinatus (97%) followed by subscapularis (17%) and infraspinatus (7%). Teres minor tendon was normal in all the patients. CONCLUSION MRI is currently the modality of choice for the imaging of the shoulder joint and to delineate the soft tissues of the shoulder joints. MR imaging is a wonderful tool for delineating normal structures and abnormalities of the rotator cuff and for determining the location and extent of rotator cuff tears before surgery. MR imaging can accurately demonstrate tendinosis, full-thickness and partial-thickness rotator cuff tears.
