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Background and Aim: Rotator cuff muscles tears are among the most common problems of shoulder joint .This disorder is diagnosed most commonly by imaging methods especially ultrasound and MRI. According to previous studies, both of these methods have high diagnostic value. Because of small sample sizes and inappropriate gold standards in these studies and also lack of enough studies in our country we decided to conduct this study to compare ultrasound and MRI for diagnosis of rotator cuff muscles tears. Material and Methods: We performed shoulder ultrasonography and MRI for 100 patients before shoulder surgery in this descriptive analytical study. The results of ultrasonography and MRI were reported separately by 2 radiologists. Using SPSS 19 software, data were analyzed by McNamara’s test. Results: 27 of 100 patients that underwent surgery had tears in rotator cuff muscles (20 with complete tear and 7 with partial tear). Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value were 92.6%, 95.9%, 89.3% and 97.2% for ultrasonography, and 96.3%, 97.3%, 95.9% and 98.6% respectively for MRI. There was no significant difference between the two methods (P>0.05). Conclusion: According to the results of this study both of these methods have high accuracy in the diagnosis of rotator cuff muscles tears and can be used for patient evaluation. Received: Feb 7, 2013 Accepted: Sep 3, 2013 Conflict of interest: None declared

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Background and Aim: Although MRI is the preferred method with high diagnostic sensitivity for disc herniation, definitive diagnosis based on MRI image interpretation is still a major challenge. The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical and morphological findings in different MRI sequences and then assessment of the agreement between different observers.
Materials and Methods: In this descriptive-analytical study, different MRI sequences of 224 patients with disc herniation were analyzed and diagnosed separately by two radiologists. The morphological type of disc herniation and the location of the involved disc were diagnosed and finally, the diagnostic agreement between the observers was assessed.
Results: A total of 224 patients (124 women and 100 men) with disc herniation were included in the study. On average 40% of the cases were bulge, 38% protrusion, 13% extrusion and 9% sequestration. There was complete agreement between the observers in the determination of anatomical location, but in regard to morphological type, we found a kappa agreement coefficient of 0.45 between the observers.
Conclusion: T1 weight sequence is helpful in the diagnosis of the bulging hernia. The agreement between the observers was moderate (k = 0.45) and there was no agreement between the physicians on the morphological level of the extrusion and sequestration hernia. Use of other diagnostic methods besides MRI, integrated and continuous training of methods for interpreting MRI images based on Best Evidence Medical Education are recommended.