IDENTIFICATION OF THE VASCULAR AND AVASCULAR ZONES OF THE HUMAN MENISCUS USING MAGNETIC-RESONANCE-IMAGING - CORRELATION WITH HISTOLOGY

Since the initial employment of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to di agnose meniscal tears, a characteristic low-signal intensity, triangul ar-shaped structure has been interpreted as representing the entire me niscus. The difficulty in diagnosing meniscocapsular separations with MRI has brought attention to our lack of understanding of the appearan ce on MRI of the outer third of the meniscus and the meniscocapsular j unction. We correlated MRIs of the meniscus in cadaver knees with hist ological sections and found that the low-signal, wedge-shaped structur e corresponds only to the avascular (white) zone of the meniscus, wher eas the high-signal zone peripheral to it corresponds to the vasculari zed (red) zone.