Diagnoses of Meniscal and Cruciate Ligament Injuries Using Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Knee Comparison with the Findings of Arthroscopy

As previously reported, MRI is found to be useful in the evaluation of meniscal and cruciate ligament injuries. But at our institute, however, due to frequent in consistencies between MRI and arthroscopic findings, we investigated problem knees by MRI and compared the findings with those using arthroscopy subsequently performed. 28 cases with medial and lateral meniscus, and 31 cases with anterior and posterior crucial ligament were examined. The field strength of MRI was 1.0 Tesla, and images were meared by the T2 weighted gradient echo method. Sensitivity for medial meniscus, lateral meniscus, anterior cruciate ligament, and posterior cruciate ligament was 60, 38, 33, and 20 percent respectively, specificity was 78, 90, 91, and 89 percent respectively, and accuracy was 75, 75, 74, and 77 percent respectively. These values are lower compared with other reports. Diagnoses of meniscal and cruciate ligament injuries from magnetic resonance imaging of the knee at our institute are not confidential. For improvement, the scanning and imaging methods, must be changed and a new sophisticated MRI scanner is desirable.