Abstract
A blind and prospective study was conducted to assess the accuracy of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for diagnosing patellar cartilage lesions. Thirty-three consecutive patients undergoing knee arthroscopy were examined by MRI prior to surgery. Imaging was performed in the axial plane on a 1.5-Tesla unit with spinecho and gradient-echo T1 and T2 sequences. The MRI and arthroscopic data were compared using a four-grade classification and a patellar map which divided the patellar surface into four quadrants. The overall sensitivity of MRI was 84.7% and the specificity 97.2%. The same pit-fall led to two MRI false positives. A perfect correlation of grading was obtained in 76.5%. When discordance was found, the tendency with MRI was commonly to underestimate the grade of the lesions. The MRI accuracy was high in this study in spite of a high rate of low-grade lesions which are difficult to assess. Related criteria for cartilage assessment with MRI and arthroscopy are suggested for further studies.
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Vallotton, J.A., Meuli, R.A., Leyvraz, P.F. et al. Comparison between magnetic resonance imaging and arthroscopy in the diagnosis of patellar cartilage lesions. Knee Surg, Sports traumatol, Arthroscopy 3, 157–162 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01565475
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01565475