Comparison of fat-saturation fast spin echo versus conventional spin-echo MRI in the detection of rotator cuff pathology

The purpose of this study was to compare the diagnostic performance of fat-saturation fast-spin-echo (FSE) T2-weighted (T2W) sequences with conventional spin-echo (CSE) T2W sequences in the detection of rotator cuff pathology using surgery as the reference standard. Oblique coronal dual-echo CSE and FSE T2W images with fat saturation from 50 surgically confirmed MR shoulder examinations were acquired on a 1.5-T MR scanner. Blinded MR readers retrospectively analyzed each imaging sequence separately and ultimately correlated both sequences together with findings at surgery. FSE was 100% sensitive and 94% specific in detection of full-thickness tears (n = 19) and 73% sensitive and 97% specific in the detection of partial-thickness rotator cuff tears (n = 13). There was no statistically significant difference in the performance of FSE with fat saturation compared with CSE. The two discrepancies between imaging sequences related to the extent of partial-thickness tears. Our findings suggest that fat-saturation FSE imaging can effectively replace CSE imaging in the evaluation of rotator cuff pathology.