Diagnostic Value of Ultrasonography in Determination of Knee Joint Pathologies with Comparison to MRI.

Abstract

Knee pain is a common musculoskeletal symptom in the general population and results in significant disability, reducing the quality of life and inducing financial burden to the health care system. This cross-sectional, descriptive type of observational study was conducted with a total 52 patients having symptomatic knee joint disease in the Department of Radiology and Imaging, Mymensingh Medical College Hospital, Bangladesh from April 2019 to September 2020. This study was performed to find out the effectiveness of ultrasonography as a modality of investigation in the determination of knee joint pathologies with comparison to MRI, considering MRI as the gold standard. The majority of the patients 13(25.0%) were in the age group of 15-25 years with mean age was 39.88±15.308 years. In detecting synovial effusion, bursal collection, baker's cyst, tendinopathy and tumor pathologies ultrasound had 100.0% sensitivity, specificity and accuracy for each whether bursitis has 100.0%, 96.4% and 98.07% respectively. MCL tear had 100.0%, 97.8%, 98.07%. LCL tear detection showed 100.0%, 97.8%, 98.07%. PCL tear had 66.7%, 95.9%, 94.2%. ACL tear had 50.0%, 97.6%, 88.4% sensitivity, specificity and accuracy. Meniscal tear showed 66.7%, 97.8%, 88.4% sensitivity and accuracy. In all cases difference was statistically significant with a p value <0.0001 which strongly supported against null hypothesis. From this study, it is concluded that high-resolution USG showed high sensitivity, specificity and accuracy compared to MRI in detecting common knee abnormalities, and could be considered as the first-line imaging modality in the evaluation of knee pain.