title: Angled oblique sagittal MR imaging of rotator cuff tears: comparison with standard oblique sagittal images.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To compare the accuracy for diagnosing rotator cuff tears of oblique coronal images supplemented with standard oblique sagittal images versus thinner-section angled oblique sagittal images.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study included 75 consecutive patients who had a shoulder MR scan followed by arthroscopy. MR images included oblique coronal, oblique sagittal (4 mm thick, 1 mm interslice gap), and angled oblique sagittal (3 mm/0.2 mm) images perpendicular to the lateral cuff. A musculoskeletal staff radiologist and fellow separately evaluated the cuff for tears on the oblique coronal images supplemented with either the oblique sagittal or the angled sagittal images.
  
  
  RESULTS
  For distinguishing a cuff tear from no tear, the staff radiologist had an accuracy of 0.76 (95% confidence interval: 0.67, 0.85) with the standard sagittal set, and 0.88 (0.80, 0.95) with the angled set (P=0.04). There was a nonsignificant improvement in accuracy for the fellow, calculated as 0.73 (0.63, 0.83) on the standard sagittal set and 0.76 (0.67, 0.85) on the angled set. Both readers also improved their diagnostic accuracy for partial-thickness tears with the angled set, although the improvement was statistically significant only for the staff radiologist.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There is a slight improvement in accuracy for diagnosing rotator cuff tears, particularly partial-thickness tears, for the more experienced radiologist using thinner-section angled oblique sagittal images. These images may be useful as a supplemental sequence in patients where it is important to identify partial-thickness tears accurately.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics, Clinical Science Center, Madison 53792-3252, USA.
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Tuite
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Asinger
authors.forename: J F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Orwin
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012372:ROC Curve; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D017006:Rotator Cuff / Q000473:pathology*; D000070636:Rotator Cuff Injuries