Dual-Echo Magnetic Resonance Imaging Pulse Sequence in Diagnosis of Temporomandibular Disorders: Diagnostic Accuracy Study

Objective: This study was conducted to assess the diagnostic accuracy of different MRI pulse sequence dual-echo-PD in the diagnosis of temporomandibular disorders. Subjects and methods: Twenty seven patients (54 Temporomandibular joints) with painful joints or limited mouth opening or unexplained longstanding headache were enrolled in the study to examine the diagnostic accuracy of magnetic resonance imaging sequence dual-echo in delineation of the articular disc position, the disc morphology, and the cortical bone in comparison to the gold standard of MRI scanning sequence: proton density weighted images. Results: Dual-echo-PD weighted image showed 94.7% sensitivity and 96.3% diagnostic accuracy in identifying articular disc position. Dual-echo-PD showed no statistically significant difference than proton-density in delineation of disc morphology or cortical bone. Conclusions: The dual-echo imaging sequence can be used instead of using PD to delineate disc position, morphology, and cortical bone