Sensitivity and specificity of MRI in detecting meniscal tears, confirmed subsequently with arthroscopy

Abstract

Background: Knee joint is the largest and complex joint of the body consisting of two condylar joint between the corresponding condyles of femur and tibia and a sellar joint between patella and femur. Objective:To observe the sensitivity and specificity of MRI in detecting meniscal tears, confirmed subsequently with arthroscopy. Methodology: Following approval from the Hospital Ethical Committee, this prospective, comparative observational study was conducted at Ramkrishna Care Hospital, Raipur, Chhattisgarh. Informed consent was taken from all patients undergoing this study. We prospectively studied 67 patients with complaints of knee pain or instability/locking/giving away sensation with history of knee injury between the age group of 15-60 years over a period of 24 months starting from November 2014 to October 2016. Results: MRI finding showed MM injury in 33(49.25%) patients while 23(34.33%) had positive result arthroscopically. 20 (29.85%) patients showed MRI positivity for LM injury out of which 18(26.87%) were positive arthroscopically. The accuracy of medial meniscal injury by MRI examination in con-cordance with arthroscopic finding was found to be 73.13% while sensitivity was 82.61% and specificity 68.18%. In our study MRI examination for lateral meniscal injury was found to have accuracy of 88.06%, with sensitivity of 83.33% and specificity of 89.80%. Conclusion: It was concluded that MRI has high accuracy in diagnosing meniscal injuries. This makes it most appropriate screening tool for therapeautic arthroscopy.