MRI DIAGNOSIS OF PARTIAL TEARS OF THE ANTERIOR CRUCIATE LIGAMENT

In an attempt to define the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) features of partial tears of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) we retrospect ively analysed the MRI scans of 30 patients with a recent arthroscopic finding of a normal, a partial or a Completely torn ACL. On review of the original reports MRI correctly predicted 9/9 (100 per cent) compl ete ACL tears, 11/12 (92 per cent) normal ACLs but only 1/9 (11 per ce nt) partial ACL tears. On analysis of the MRI there were four features which helped to differentiate partial ACL tears from either complete ACL tears or normal ligaments. These were the appearance of some intac t fibres, thinning of the ligament a wavy or curved ligament and the p resence of an inhomogeneous mass postero; lateral to the ACL. We propo se that these findings may be indicators of partial ACL fear. Copyrigh t (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.