Failed Fat Saturation

Injury Clinic
1

I wondered if someone can help me.
An athlete who trains with me recently had pain in their feet near the 4th and 5th metatarsals.

We thoguht it might be a stress fracture.

We had an MRI and the result has come back.
He has no stress fracture.

He has failed fat saturation with artefactual high signal change within the metatarsal heads/proximal phalanges 2nd to 5th digits

I have tried to look on the internet to find out what this is but I have no idea.I have spoken to a few physiotherapists and they don’t seem to know what it is either.

Can anyone explain in laymans terms what this is.

Thanks

2

I think that means that they can’t properly see the area of interest because the machine didn’t adequately suppress signals originating from fat molecules.