Teaching Point-Fatty Atrophy of Supraspinatus Muscle

Supraspinatus fatty infiltration evaluated subjectively by examining the proportion of fat in the muscle on the sagittal and coronal T1-weighted images. Fatty infiltration is graded according to the method of Goutallier et al. According to that method, normal muscle that contains no fatty streaks is grade 0. In mild muscle fatty infiltration (grade 1), there are a few fatty streaks; in moderate muscle fatty infiltration (grade 2), there are about equal amounts of muscle and fat; and in severe muscle fatty infiltration (grade 3), there is more fat than muscle.