The Retrospective Study of Magnetic Resonance Imaging Signal Intensity Ratio in the Quantitative Diagnosis of Temporomandibular Condylar Resorption in Young Female Patients

According to the literature, there is no reliable and quantitative method available for the diagnosis and prognosis of early or potential temporomandibular joint (TMJ) condylar resorption (CR) thus far. The purpose of this study was to raise a new noninvasive method to quantitatively evaluate condylar quality using the signal intensity ratio (SIR) on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in order to assist in the diagnosis of TMJ CR. A retrospective exploratory study was performed to compare the condyle-to-cerebral cortex signal intensity ratios (SIR) on MRI among young female patients. We included 60 patients, and they were divided into three groups: the bilateral normal TMJ group (group 1), the bilateral TMJ anterior disc displacement (ADD) but without CR group (group 2), and the bilateral TMJ anterior disc displacement (ADD) with CR group (group 3). The SIR difference between the three groups was analyzed by the Kruskal–Wallis test (K-W test). The sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, and area under curve (AUC) were calculated by the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. There was high consistency between the surgeon and the radiologist in the evaluation of the magnetic signal intensity with intraclass correlation coefficients of 0.939–0.999. The average SIR was 1.07 in the bilateral normal TMJ group (group 1), 1.03 in the ADD without CR group (group 2), and 0.78 in the ADD with CR group (group 3). It could be found by the K-W test that group 3 was significantly different from group 1 and group 2 (p < 0.05), while there was no significant difference between group 1 and group 2. The optimal critical SIR value was 0.96 for the diagnosis of CR according to the ROC curves and Youden index (p < 0.001, AUC = 0.9). The condyle-to-cerebral cortex SIR can be used as a noninvasive diagnostic tool for the quantitative evaluation of condylar quality and diagnosis and prognosis of CR. SIR ≥ 0.96 indicates a healthy condyle, while SIR < 0.96 is considered the optimal critical value for the diagnosis of CR. These findings are important for personalized and accurate treatment and prognosis prediction.