研究目的

To investigate the diagnostic performance of three-dimensional (3D) MRI for depicting meniscal injuries of the knee by using surgery as the standard of reference.

研究成果

Both three-dimensional (3D) fast spin-echo (FSE) and 3D gradient-echo (GRE) sequences had similar diagnostic performance as two-dimensional sequences, with slight superior sensitivity of 3D FSE sequences compared with 3D GRE sequences for depicting lateral meniscal injuries of the knee.

研究不足

Our study had several limitations. First, our meta-analysis did not summarize the results of all MRI studies reporting the diagnostic performance of 2D sequences for depicting meniscal injuries because this was beyond the scope of our study. Second, our meta-analysis did not describe the diagnostic performance of MRI for depicting different morphologic types of meniscal injuries because only two studies reported this information. Furthermore, none of the studies categorized meniscal injuries based on the inciting event, including degenerative injuries versus traumatic injuries. Third, our meta-analysis showed a high rate of variance among included studies, although this could be explained by large variations in patient populations, types of meniscal injuries evaluated, MRI techniques and protocols, MRI and reference standard criteria used to define meniscal injuries, and time intervals between the index and reference tests. Fourth, we could not provide any data on the performance of this modality in men versus women because the included studies did not report their data in separate categories. Fifth, in the majority of the included studies in our meta-analysis, the orthopedic surgeons were aware of the findings of the index test, which may have added bias and made surgery an imperfect reference standard.