Assessment of wrist joint pain by Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Abstract

Introduction: Wrist pain is a common clinical complaint. The most common causes of wrist pain are traumatic and non-traumatic abnormalities involving ganglia, avascular necrosis, and triangular fibrocartilage lesions. MRI serves as a problem-solving technique to assess the cause of wrist pain. It also plays an important prognostic role. Aim of the Work: The aim of this study is to highlight the value of MRI in the assessment of patients suffering from wrist joint pain. Patients and Methods: A descriptive study, conducted on fifty patients underwent an MRI examination (patients with painful wrist joint) during this period. Every patient with a normal MRI examination had been excluded from this study. All patients were performed MRI in the radiology department, Ain Shams University Hospital. The examination carried out after signing the informed consent by the patient himself or his guardian if the patient is incapacitated by any means. Results: The study included 50 patients (21 females and 29 males) ranged in age between 19-70 years with mean age 20-40 [30.90±11.38], 56.0% of the patient were between the age of 20-30 years Conclusion: MRI is the modality of choice in evaluating the painful wrist joint diseases due to its high soft-tissue contrast resolution, and multi-planar capabilities. It provides a non-invasive tool for the diagnosis of wrist joint disease, which is often difficult to diagnose with alternative modalities. MRI is particularly advantageous for assessing soft tissue structures around the wrist such as tendons, ligaments, nerves, and fascia and for detecting occult bone injuries.