International Journal of Anatomy Radiology and Surgery (Oct 2020)

Role of Ultrasonography in Detecting Meniscal Tear and its Correlation with Magnetic Resonance Imaging: An Observational Study

  • Amit kumar Gupta,
  • Akhilesh Kumar,
  • Vatsala Gupta

DOI
https://doi.org/10.7860/IJARS/2020/44724:2582
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 4
pp. 29 – 32

Abstract

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Introduction: A meniscal tear is the most common injury to the knee, and commonly occurring from both athletic events and activities of daily living. The diagnosis of a meniscal tear may require Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), which is costly. In remote and rural parts of our country, MRI is not available so ultrasonographic examination of knee can be used as diagnostic tool to overcome financial burden to such population groups. Aim: To correlate the accuracy of Ultrasonography (USG) and MRI for diagnosing meniscal tears and also to correlate the specificity, sensitivity, and predictive values of USG for meniscal tears in comparison with MRI. Materials and Methods: It was an observational study. It included 50 patients who presented to our institute with complain of acute or chronic knee pain and restriction of movement with clinical signs and symptoms of meniscal tear with history of trauma. All patients underwent ultrasonographic examination of knee along with MRI and arthroscopy. The statistical analysis was done by using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 22.0 software. Accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, Positive Predictive Value (PPV) and Negative Predictive Value (NPV) were calculated based on detection of meniscal tear. Results: This study comprised of 50 patients: 45 were males and 5 were females whose median age was 29 years. Upon combining both medial and lateral menisci, USG showed mean accuracy of 72%, mean sensitivity of 48.6% and mean specificity of 85.7%. MRI showed mean accuracy of 76%, mean sensitivity of 50% and the mean specificity of 90.6%. Conclusion: According to this study, USG has shown reasonable accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV in comparison to MRI in detecting meniscal lesions.This study has proved that USG can be a good negative test for meniscal tear as we can exclude normal meniscus from abnormal, thus patient with normal meniscus could be prevented from undergoing costly MRI as their initial investigation. So, it can be used as an effective diagnostic screening tool.

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