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Updated: Oct 9, 2025
Reverse Total Shoulder Arthroplasty
Published on: July 5, 2011
MRA improves sensitivity than MRI for the articular-sided partial-thickness rotator cuff tears
Lianxin Li1, Jinlei Dong1, Qinghu Li1
1Department of Orthopaedics, 518873Shandong Provincial Hospital affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan, Shandong, China.
Background:
This study aims to compare the diagnostic accuracy of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and MR arthrography (MRA) for the articular-sided partial-thickness rotator cuff tear (PTRCT).
Methods:
Three electronic databases, PubMed/Medline, Embase and Cochrane Library, were utilized to retrieve articles comparing the diagnostic value of MRA and MRI for detecting articular-sided PTRCTs. The pooled statistical indexes included sensitivity, specificity, positive/negative predictive value, diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC).
Results:
Eleven studies involving 1703 patients and 1704 shoulders were included. The pooled sensitivity, specificity, DOR and AUC and their 95% CIs of MRA to diagnose articular-sided PTRCTs were 0.81 (95% CI, 0.65-0.90), 0.96 (95% CI, 0.91-0.98), 68.14 (95% CI, 33.20-139.84) and 0.96 (95% CI, 0.94-0.97), respectively. The pooled sensitivity, specificity, DOR and AUC and their 95% CIs of MRI were 0.78 (95% CI, 0.65-0.87) and 0.97 (95% CI, 0.84-0.99), 47.82 (95% CI, 8.29-275.89) and 0.89 (95% CI, 0.86-0.92), respectively.
Conclusions:
This meta-analysis reveals that MRA has a better diagnostic value than that of MRI for the diagnosis of articular-sided partial-thickness rotator cuff tears because of an improvement of sensitivity.
