A prevalência de condropatia patelar na ressonância magnética de 3.0 tesla

Abstract

Introduction: Patellar chondropathy has an insidious onset, affecting patients with progressive, diffuse pain on the anterior aspect of the knee joint, and is one of the earliest signs of patellofemoral joint degenerative disease. Its etiology is still ill‐defined, although risk factors such as female gender, increased body weight, and older age have been wellstablished in literature. There has been a prevalence of 40‐60% under patellar cartilage macroscopic examination. The gold standard method for diagnosis is the arthroscopy; nonetheless, being a surgical procedure with high complication rates, its use is limited. With the advent of newer imaging methods, these modalities have been much more employed than diagnostic arthroscopy. Both conventional radiographs and CT scans provide indirect information on the condition of joint cartilage, whilst MRI provides more accurate data. There are no studies, however, highlighting the prevalence of patellar chondropathy in more recent imaging techniques such as the 3.0 Tesla MRI. Objective: To establish the prevalence of patellar chondropathy in 3.0 Tesla MRIs performed at Instituto do Cérebro da PUCRS between October 2016 and September 2017. Method: Data were collected by 3.0 Tesla MRIs of patients' knees obtained at Instituto do Cérebro da Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul between September 2016 and August 2017, comprising a period of 12 months. Those MRIs were assessed by an experienced musculoskeletal radiologist, who confirmed the presence of patellar chondropathy and, when present, rated the finding into the four grades ascribed by the International Cartilage Repair Society. Results: A number of 291 patients were assessed during the period with 389 MRI scans. Of those patients, 308 (79.2%) were diagnosed with patellar chondropathy, whilst 81 (20.8%) were not. Chondropathy was more prevalent in the female gender, in subjects above 40 years of age, and in obese patients. When the results were weighed in ICRS classification, the milder grades (1 and 2) were seen in younger man (<30 years of age), while the more severe grades (3 and 4) were present in females, those above 40 years of age, and in obese patients.