ABSTRACT
The authors describe their experience with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the
evaluation of pathologic conditions of the wrist in an outpatient setting. In that
setting, because time and quality are both important factors, they have concentrated
on developing protocols that will allow effective, time-efficient, high-resolution
MRI of the wrist. With these wrist imaging protocols, they have evaluated the majority
of commonly encountered pathologic conditions of the wrist. They have found that high-resolution
images, which can be acquired in a very timely fashion when fast spin echo sequences
are used in imaging protocols, will demonstrate the most common pathologic conditions,
including triangular fibrocartilage and ligament tears in the wrist. They present
the practical issues of patient position and imaging sequences as well as the imaging
findings in those pathologic conditions.
KEYWORD
Wrist - magnetic resonance imaging - outpatient care
