Meniscal Tears of the Knee: Diagnosis with Fast Spin-Echo MR Imaging and Role of Gadolinium-Enhancement

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: The usefulness of fast spin-echo MR imaging for the diagnosis of meniscal tear of the knee is amatter of debate. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of diagnosis of meniscal tears by fastspin-echo MR imaging and the role of gadolinium enhancement. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Between October 1994 andDecember 1996, 68 consecutive patients with arthroscopically proven meniscal tears participated in this study. AllMR examinations performed on a 1.5-T MR imager with an extremity knee coil. All patients underwent sagittal andcoronal MR imaging, using a fast spin-echo sequence with echo train length(ETL) 8. Sagittal and coronal fatsuppressed T1-weighted MR images were obtained after gadolinium infusion. RESULTS: In 68 cases ofarthroscopically-proven meniscal tears, MR sensitivity to tear was 93% (63/68) for fast spin-echo alone and 96%(65/68) for combined fast spin-echo and fat-suppressed gadolinium enhanced T1-weighted MR images. MR sensitivityto medial meniscus tear was 98% (40/41) for fast spin-echo alone and 98% (40/41) for combined fast spin-echo andfat-suppressed gadolinum-enhanced T1-weighted MR images. MR sensitivity to lateral meniscus tear was 85% (23/27)for fast spin-echo alone and 93% (25/27) for combined fast spin-echo and fat-suppressed gadolinium-enhancedT1-weighted MR images. CONCLUSION: Fast spin-echo MR imaging with adequate imaging parameters is suitable for thediagnosis of meniscal tears, and additional fat-suppressed gadolinium-enhanced T1-weighted MR imaging may increasediagnostic sensitivity to such tears.