Meniscal tears of the knee: Accuracy of detection with fast spin-echo MR imaging and arthroscopic correlation in 293 patients

PURPOSE: To evaluate the accuracy of a magnetic resonance (MR) imaging strategy that uses primarily fast spin-echo (SE) sequences for the diagnosis of meniscal tears. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The original clinical interpretations of MR images in 293 patients who underwent imaging for suspected internal derangement of a knee joint were correlated with results from subsequent arthroscopy. MR examination included a double-echo fast SE sequence as the only imaging in the sagittal plane. RESULTS: The sensitivity and specificity for 143 confirmed tears of the medial meniscus were 89% and 84%, respectively, while the values for 96 confirmed tears of the lateral meniscus were 72% and 93%. These values are within the ranges of values recently reported for imaging strategies relying predominantly on conventional SE sequences. CONCLUSION: Fast SE imaging of the knee can be an alternative to conventional SE imaging for the detection of meniscal tears.