USE OF ULTRASONOGRAPHY VERSUS MAGNETIC-RESONANCE-IMAGING FOR TENDON ABNORMALITIES AROUND THE ANKLE

A prospective study was performed on 28 patients who underwent surgery for tendon disorders around the ankle. Preoperatively, all patients h ad real-time, high resolution ultrasonography performed with a 7.5 or 10 mHz transducer. Twenty of these patients also had a preoperative ma gnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examination of the ankle. A total of 54 tendons were inspected intraoperatively, revealing a total of 24 intr asubstance or complete tendon tears. These surgical findings were comp ared with the ultrasound and MRI findings, from which the sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy were calculated for both modalities. Ultras ound produced results with a sensitivity measurement of 100%, specific ity of 89.9%, and accuracy of 94.4%. MRI produced results with a sensi tivity measurement of 23.4%, specificity of 100%, and accuracy of 65.7 5%. Ultrasound results were more sensitive and accurate than MRI in th e detection of ankle tendon tears in our study.