Glenohumeral instability: Validity of low-field MRI for diagnosis of labral tears

Purpose: To analyze the MRI findings of a series of patients with symptoms of glenohumeral instability and determine whether the diagnosis of a torn labrum can be confirmed by surgical exploration. Materials and methods: Between January 2005 and January 2011, low-field MRI was performed in a total of 190 patients. Surgical treatment was administered to 127 patients, and only 62 of them were subjected to diagnostic arthroscopy. Results: A total of 127 patients (66.8%) underwent surgery. The most frequent surgical procedure was Arthroscopic Bankart Repair (62 cases, 48.8%) with a total number of correct MRI-based labral tear diagnoses of 50 (overall predictive value: 83.3%). Discussion: The analysis found nearly 80% correct labral tear diagnoses. The majority of errors were related to the diagnosis of SLAP lesions and attributable to several factors. Conclusion: Low-field MRI is an appropriate method to diagnose labral tears, with sensitivity levels of 83.3%. Nevertheless, in order to correctly determine the type of lesion present it is advisable, though not indispensable, to carry out a direct MR arthrogram, except in the case of SLAP lesions, where diagnosis is virtually impossible without the addition of intraarticular contrast (unless patients with glenohumeral effusion). (C) 2016 The Egyptian Society of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine. Production and hosting by Elsevier.