Telling how old a shoulder tear is

[netsurfer]

After having an MRI and the results come back saying that you have a large full thickness tear to the supraspinatus, how can you tell how old the tear is.

I mean how does one define a chronic tear compared to a new tear?

How old is a chronic tear?  

[netsurfer]

Dear DrNavneetMD,

You haven't answered my question.

Let me put it to you this way..........

Let's say a person has not suffered any symptoms whatsoever in relation to their shoulder, whether that may be no pain or loss of movement at anytime. They are as normal as the next person with having full shoulder function and no pain and no accidents or mishaps that they know of that may have casued a tear.

BUT......... following an MRI of the shoulder for another reason other than to go looking for tears, the scans come back showing tears to many of the rotator cuff muscles and damage to the long head of the bicep tendon together with a few other issues.

My question is.... when you view the MRI scans, because the patient doesn't have any history whatsoever of symptoms relating to this damage and functioned quite normally they would not know when this damage may have occurred.

So therefore I would like to know how a radiologist can tell how old the tears and other damage is.

How does one define chronic by looking at an MRI and it's torn muscles if the patient can't give them any hint as to when this damage occurred.

I would also like to know the difference that shows between a muscle that has been torn if several MRI's was taken over a series of weeks up till say 3 months.

The difference in the look of the muscle and how it deteriorates from day one of the tear, if an MRI is taken day one.

Then subsequent MRI's are taken each week. How would each week differ in the look of the muscle and it's deterioration up until 3 months.

[DrNavneetMD]

Hello Dear,
A chronic tear is one which symptomatically  persists for more than six months,however findings on MRI reflect the following- MRI is a noninvasive test that is extremely sensitive and specific. It can be used to detect size, location, and characteristics of rotator cuff pathology.
In a rotator cuff tear, the tendon demonstrates a bright signal on T1-weighted images that increases significantly on T2-weighted images. The increased signal on T2-weighted images is fluid that is filling the defect and helps to differentiate a frank tear from tendinosis.

Refer http://www.emedicine.com/sports/topic115.htm#section~Differentials
Best