Characterization of Knee Joint Diseases Using Medical Ultrasound and Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Background Ultrasound (US) has been advocated for the assessment of soft tissue supporting structures of the knee joint, because it's a simple, rapid, cheap, accurate method and well accepted by patient in comparison to Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). This study was aimed to determine the characterization of incidence of knee joint diseases, with US compared to MRI, in Radiological Center, College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Khalid University (KKU), Saudi Arabia, in patients with knee joint symptoms. Method A cross sectional descriptive study on the sonographic pattern of knee joint diseases was performed to assess characterization of knee joint diseases at Radiological Center, College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Khalid University (KKU), Saudi Arabia, of 124 patients from October 2011 to August 2014. US technique has been carried out according to the protocol of American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM), using a linear probe transducer with high frequency 7.5 to 12MHz. Result A total of 124 patients with knee joint disorders were evaluated with US and MRI. The age range was from 12 to 80 years. The mean age was 38 years and median 36 years. The commonest presenting symptom was painful swelling of the knee joint. US revealed characterization frequency per individual, was hyper echoic 4 (3.2%), hypo echoic 6 (4.8%) an echoic 102 (82.3%), echogenic 2 (1.6%) and none seen of other diseases 10 (8.1%) and MRI characterization frequency individuals, was high signal 102 (82.3%) and low signal 22 (17.7%).