Comparison between clinical, magnetic resonance imaging, and arthroscopic findings in meniscal and cruciate ligament injuries: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Introduction: Complete evaluation of knee injury includes detailed clinical examination, radiological evaluation, and arthroscopy. Objective: The objective of this study was to compare the effectiveness of clinical, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and arthroscopic findings in meniscal and cruciate ligament injuries. Patients and Methods: A cross-sectional study of 40 post knee injury symptomatic patients aged 20–40 years. Clinical and MR imaging findings were compared with arthroscopic findings (considering arthroscopy as the gold standard diagnostic test). The specificity, sensitivity, accuracy, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) were calculated and compared. Results: The specificity, sensitivity, PPV, NPV, accuracy of clinical examination, and MRI were similar for anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) injuries. The diagnostic accuracy of clinical examination and MRI were 82.5% and 90%, respectively, and 95% and 92.5% for medial meniscal and lateral meniscal injuries, respectively, and 97.5% and 100% for ACL and PCL injuries, respectively. Conclusion: The diagnostic accuracy of clinical examination is similar to MRI for ligament injuries and marginally lower for meniscal injuries. MRI is useful to clarify clinical diagnosis in clinical cases of meniscal and cruciate ligament injuries that are doubtful.

Keywords

• arthroscopy
• cruciate ligaments
• knee clinical examination
• magnetic resonance imaging
• meniscus