Improving image quality in shoulder MRI at 3T – BLADE vs. TSE

Purpose: Commonly in shoulder-MRI utilized TSE-sequences with block-wise linear readout of k-space are prone to artefacts caused by involuntary patient movements, possibly resulting in non-diagnostic images. A recent developed multishot T2-weighted sequence with rotating rectangular read-out of k-space data after successive radiofrequency excitations (BLADE) is expected to reduce motion artefacts and improve image quality. This initial study evaluated BLADE versus a conventional fat-saturated TSE-sequence (cTSE) for image quality, anatomical detail depiction and confidence in detection of pathologies. Materials…