Abstract
Objectives:
Posterior shoulder instability is an uncommon injury, accounting for 2-12% of shoulder instability patients. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is often utilized to non-invasively evaluate the joint for labral, cartilage, and bony injury. MR arthrography (MRA) may improve the evaluation of these intra-articular structures, but requires additional cost, time, and an invasive procedure. Moreover, its benefits for patients with posterior shoulder instability are unclear. Accurate imaging is critical in patients undergoing surgery because certain findings may influence the surgical approach. Thus, the purpose of this study is to compare the accuracy of MRA and non-enhanced MRI in detecting labral, chondral, and osseous lesions in patients with posterior shoulder instability.
Methods:
There were 291 patients with unilateral posterior shoulder instability who had preoperative MRA or MRI between 2006 and 2021 in the MOON database. Images were reviewed by a fellowship-trained musculoskeletal radiologist with 10+ years of experience and an orthopaedic surgeon. Evaluators were blinded to age, gender, medical history, MR report, and arthroscopic findings, but were aware of the patient's history of posterior shoulder instability. Examinations were evaluated for presence, location, morphology, and length of glenoid labral tears. Tear length and localization were noted using a standard clock face. The presence and size of humeral/glenoid osseous and cartilage lesions was also noted.Intraoperative findings from arthroscopic evaluation were documented by the surgeon using a standard response questionnaire. Diagnostic performance of standard MRA and MRI were evaluated using sensitivity and specificity with arthroscopic evaluation as the gold-standard. Chi-squared or Fisher’s exact tests were used to compare the sensitivities and specificities of MRA and MRI. Significance was defined as P < 0.05.
Results:
200 patients (69%) had MRA, while 91 patients had non-contrast MRIs of the shoulder. On imaging evaluation, 273 (94%) patients had labral tears with a mean tear size of 156º. 39 (13%) patients had humeral cartilage lesions, whereas 40 (14%) patients had glenoid cartilage lesions. 34 (12%) patients had glenoid bone loss greater than 5%. The mean glenoid bone loss was 12% (range, 5% - 26%). A reverse Hill-Sachs lesion was present in 35 (12%) patients. 16 (6%) patients had bipolar bone loss.
The sensitivity for detection of labral tears was high for both MRA (0.95) and standard MRI (0.98) (Tables 1 and 2), though the specificity was low for both modalities (0.25 and 0.40, respectively). There was no difference in the sensitivities or specificities of the two imaging modalities in the detection of labral tears.
MRA had a lower sensitivity than MRI in the detection of glenoid cartilage lesions (0.31 vs 0.88, p < 0.001), but no difference was observed for specificity. There was no difference in the sensitivities and specificities of MRA and MRI for humeral cartilage lesions (p = 0.354).MRA had a higher sensitivity than MRI in assessing glenoid bone loss (0.78 vs 0.50, p < 0.001), though there was no difference in specificity. There was no difference between imaging modalities in the evaluation of humeral bone loss (p = 1.000).
Conclusions:
In this multicenter study, MRA was the most commonly utilized preoperative advanced imaging study for patients with posterior shoulder instability. MRA had a higher sensitivity in detecting glenoid bone loss but lower sensitivity in detecting glenoid cartilage lesions compared to standard non-contrast MRI. There was no difference in diagnostic performance between MRA and MRI in the diagnosis of labral tears and humeral chondral and osseous lesions. MRA may provide an advantage over standard MRI in the evaluation of glenoid bone loss, which can influence the treatment plan for patients undergoing surgical management of posterior shoulder instability.
