Partial Thickness Supraspinatus Tear

These are more common than full thickness tears. A partial tear affecting the articular (humeral) surface of the supraspinatus tendon is show below. This is seen as intermediate signal on the T1 sequence (first image) which increases in brightness on the T2 and STIR sequences (second and third images). A magnification view of the T2 weighted image is also shown.

An axial view showing the line (in white) upon which the coronal oblique images above have been obtained is given below: