The effectiveness of expert decision-making on the connection of myofibrosis with the profession using modern x-ray methods

Abstract

Introduction. About 40% of all occupational diseases of the musculoskeletal system is degenerative muscle disease from overstrain — myofibrosis. Currently, the diagnosis is already established in the presence of obvious signs of disability, when the patient cannot continue his work in the previous profession.The aim of the study was to assess the informativeness of MRI in the early revealing of the disease. To develop the technique of MRI and detect changes in striated muscles of the upper extremities 50 patients with previously established diagnosis of myofibrosis were examined and 10 with suspicion on it. The analysis of the obtained image showed the most informative pulse sequences for revealing muscle changes. The optimal impulse sequence for the evaluation of muscle structures is IDEAL, for the determination of muscle edema — diffuse-weighted image and post-contrast T1-weighted image to visualize the disturbance of the histo-hematic barrier penetration. The presence of brachioradialis muscle edema on a diffusely weighted image served as an objective basis to regard these changes as the initial stage of myofibrosis and allowed to transfer patients from the group with suspected myofibrosis to the group with the initial stage of the disease, thus increasing the effectiveness of expert decisions on the connection of this disease with the profession.