Magnetic resonance imaging has become one of the most sensitive diagnostic tool to evaluate problems of the knee, because it enables us to identify not only osseous tissue but also soft tissues including muscle, fascia, tendon, ligament, meniscus
and
fat around the knee joint.
Compared with other diagnostic methods that have been used to evaluate problems of the knee, magnetic resonance imaging has many advantages. It is noninvasive and painless. It allows imaging in various planes. It does not use ionizing radiation.
On
the
other hand, the disadvantages are that is time-consuming and expensive. It provides only a moderate diagnostic accuracy for meniscal lesion. It has been reported that the diagnostic accuracy for meniscal lesion ranged form 45% to 98%. It is our
responsibility to use magnetic resonance imaging as a sensitiive diagnostic tool in the knee problems and to avoid unnecessary expense.
The purpose of this paper is to review reports about magnetic resonance imaging in order to understand the basic concept of physics, and help the interpretation of magnetic resonance imaging in the knee joint.
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