Shoulder scans after 40 — Nearly always abnormal, rarely useful
Lauren Finestone
If you've ever had an MRI for a sore shoulder, there's a good chance the scan showed a rotator cuff tear or another abnormality. And there's a good chance your doctor said that explained the source of your pain. But that link may be far weaker than assumed.If you’ve been told your shoulder pain is explained by a tear or abnormality showing up on an MRI scan, there is a reasonable chance that finding would have been there whether you had pain or not. A large Finnish study has found that rotator cuff abnormalities are pretty much universal in people over 40, with MRI findings so similar that the scan could not reliably tell a painful shoulder from a pain-free one. The findings are signi...
Published 18 August, 2026