Why people land here with a wrist scan
Ulnar-sided wrist pain is notoriously hard to pin down. You fell, or you didn't, and now the outside edge of your wrist aches every time you turn a doorknob or push off a chair, and three different people have three different guesses. A lot of visitors here are holding a report with a phrase like “central TFCC perforation with positive ulnar variance” and no idea what that combination means for their actual wrist.
Others show up after a scaphoid injury that the first X-ray called normal, only for the pain in the anatomical snuffbox to still be there six weeks later — scaphoid fractures hide from plain films often enough that a second look matters. Add a hand clinic appointment that's three or four weeks out, and most people just want to know, tonight, whether what they're looking at is something that can wait or something that can't.
That's the gap this tool fills: a plain-language walk-through of your own wrist imaging, in minutes, so you arrive at that appointment already knowing what to ask instead of hearing the terminology for the first time in the exam room.
What the wrist panel actually looks at
The panel is built for wrist MRI and MR arthrogram, wrist X-ray including dedicated scaphoid views, and wrist CT. On MRI it looks at the triangular fibrocartilage complex for TFCC tears, checks ulnar variance and signs of ulnar impaction against the ulnar head, and traces the scapholunate and lunotriquetral ligaments for the tear and gap patterns behind carpal instability such as DISI and VISI.
It follows the scaphoid closely — waist fractures, delayed union or frank non-union, and the avascular necrosis that can follow a poorly perfused proximal pole. On the distal radius it flags Colles-pattern and intra-articular fracture lines, and on the carpus it watches for Kienbock disease collapsing the lunate, carpal tunnel narrowing against the median nerve, and scapholunate advanced collapse arthritis in a wrist that's been unstable for years. Tendon compartments get the same attention — extensor and flexor tears, De Quervain tenosynovitis at the first dorsal compartment, and ganglion cysts pressing on the dorsal or volar capsule — alongside the distal radioulnar joint for congruency and instability.
The report then explains back which structure is involved, what the measurements and grading actually mean in your case, and what typically comes next in wrist care — splinting and rest, a corticosteroid injection, or a referral for surgical repair — so you know the range of what your clinician might recommend before you're sitting across from them.
Who ends up analyzing a wrist scan here
This tends to be people who landed on an outstretched hand and want to know if it was a sprain or a scaphoid fracture, climbers and gymnasts whose wrists take repetitive loading no one warned them about, and racket- and stick-sport players nursing ulnar-sided pain that flares on every backhand or slap shot. It also serves keyboard workers whose fingers go numb at night from carpal tunnel pressure, and new parents whose thumb side aches from hoisting a baby all day, a pattern that usually points to De Quervain tenosynovitis rather than anything more serious.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can AI see a TFCC tear on my wrist MRI?
The panel is built to look at the triangular fibrocartilage complex specifically — it checks the rendered MRI images for the bright fluid signal and discontinuity that mark a TFCC tear, and explains where in the complex it sits, but a formal arthrogram or arthroscopy is still the reference standard for confirming central versus peripheral tears.
Why was my scaphoid fracture missed on the first X-ray?
Scaphoid fractures are notoriously subtle on plain films right after the injury — the fracture line can be nearly invisible until bone resorption widens it over a couple of weeks, which is why anyone with snuffbox tenderness and a normal early X-ray is usually splinted anyway and re-imaged or sent for MRI or CT later.
What does positive ulnar variance mean?
It means the ulna sits longer relative to the radius than average, which loads the TFCC and the ulnar side of the carpus more than a neutral wrist — a pattern associated with ulnar impaction syndrome and central TFCC wear, which the report will call out alongside the measurement itself.
Can it read a wrist X-ray as well as an MRI?
It reads both, but they answer different questions. X-ray, including scaphoid views, is best for fracture lines, alignment, and arthritis; MRI adds the soft-tissue detail needed for TFCC tears, ligament injuries, and early avascular necrosis that plain film cannot show.
Will it tell me whether I need wrist surgery?
No. It explains what the imaging shows and the general range of treatment a finding like a TFCC tear, scapholunate tear, or scaphoid non-union usually leads to — splinting, injection, or surgical referral — but the actual decision belongs to a hand and wrist surgeon who has examined you.
Does my wrist scan get uploaded anywhere?
Your raw DICOM files are parsed and rendered entirely in your browser. Only the rendered images generated from that local processing are sent for AI analysis, and only once you choose to run it — the original files never leave your device.
Where this tool stops
This is not a diagnosis, and it does not replace a hand and wrist surgeon or the radiologist who read your original study. Some wrist symptoms need urgent care right now, not an AI report later tonight: an obviously deformed wrist after a fall, a hand that has turned cold or pale, numbness that is rapidly getting worse, a forearm that feels tense and swollen, or fever with a hot, swollen wrist. Your raw scan files stay in your browser throughout — only the rendered images you choose to submit are sent for analysis.