Correlation of MRT and arthroscopic diagnosis of knee pathology in children and adolescents

The accuracy of magnetic resonance imaging (MRT) in diagnosing knee patholo gy in the pediatric and adolescent population is not well established The p urpose of this study was to correlate the findings of MRI and knee arthrosc opy in children and adolescents. One hundred and eight consecutive knee art hroscopies performed in patients ages 4-17 years between 1992 and 1996 were retrospectively reviewed. Fifty-three of these patients underwent preopera tive MRI. Age-related comparisons were then made between MRIs and observed intraoperative meniscal and anterior cruciate ligament pathology. The pedia tric group (ages 4-14 years) was demonstrated to have an appreciable decrea se in sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and accuracy for essentially all categories of pathologic changes. Conversely, negative pre dictive values for the pediatric group exceeded those of the adolescent gro up (ages 15-17 years) in each category. The ability of MRI to predict intra articular knee pathology among adolescents is comparable to that in adults, whereas it is much less accurate in the pediatric population.