How accurate is MRI for meniscus tear?

MRI had a sensitivity and specificity of 91% and 94%, respectively, for the medial meniscus and 73% and 91% for the lateral meniscus when only cases with definite findings for a tear (grade 5 lesions) were considered tears.

Can MRI be wrong about meniscus tear?

The majority of missed meniscus tears on MRI affected the peripheral posterior horns. Conclusion: The sensitivity for diagnosing a meniscal tear was significantly higher when the tear involved more than one-third of the meniscus or the anterior horn.

Can a meniscus tear be misdiagnosed?

Misdiagnosis is common with root tears because they lack some of the typical hallmarks of meniscus injury: locking or catching of the knee or a sudden giving way. “It’s not that hard to find the injury,” Faucett says, “but until the past few years, there’s been little awareness of it, so physicians don’t look for it.”

Are MRI 100 percent accurate?

In our series of 112 patients with meniscal pathology, MRI scanning was 90.5% sensitive, 89.5% specific and 90.1% accurate. Conclusions: False positive MRI scans may lead to unnecessary surgery.

Can a knee MRI be wrong?

Research says 43% of Knee MRIs are arguably useless MRI of the knee without contrast noted or changes in the medial meniscus. Even the radiologist cannot determine whether this represents recurrent meniscus tear or is just post-surgical changes.

Can MRIs be wrong?

Yes, it is possible. In fact, a radiologist can misread an X-ray, mammogram, MRI, CT, or CAT scan. And it happens more often than you might think. This causes misdiagnosis or failure to diagnosis an existing issue.

How often are MRI results wrong?

Yes! It may shock you to learn that the error rate for radiologists is 4%.

How accurate are MRI scans of the knee?

MRI of the knee is used to diagnose disorders of the knee because the high soft tissue resolution allows precise imaging of intra-articular structures [3]. MRI of the menisci has proven useful for more than 10 years, with current sensitivity and specificity for meniscal tears ranging from 90 to 95% in most reports [1].

What can mimic a torn meniscus?

Normal anatomic structures that can mimic a tear include the meniscal ligament, meniscofemoral ligaments, popliteomeniscal fascicles, and menisco- meniscal ligament. Anatomic variants and pitfalls that can mimic a tear include discoid meniscus, meniscal flounce, a meniscal ossicle, and chondrocalcinosis.

What can mimic a meniscus tear?

Common extra-articular pathologies that can mimic lateral meniscal tears include iliotibial band syndrome, proximal tibiofibular joint instability, snapping biceps femoris or popliteus tendons, and peroneal nerve compression syndrome or neuritis.

Can MRI give wrong results?

Can MRI give false results?

Background. Breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been reported to frequently result in false-positive diagnoses, limiting its positive predictive value (PPV).

How accurate is MRI in the diagnosis of meniscus tears?

Accuracy of MRI in the Diagnosis of Meniscal Tears in Older Patients. When equivocal (grade 3) lesions were also considered tears, the sensitivity rose to 99% for the medial meniscus and 100% for the lateral meniscus but specificity dropped dramatically to 47% and 61%, respectively.

What is a Grade 5 tear on an MRI?

For medial tears, MRI had a sensitivity and specificity of 0.91 and 0.94, respectively, when grade 5 was considered a tear, 0.96 and 0.76 when grades 4 and 5 were considered a tear, and 0.99 and 0.47 when grades 3???5 were considered a tear.

What happens if you have a false negative MRI scan?

Patients with false negative MRI results may wait longer for their surgery. Two of the false negative MRI scan reports clearly showed meniscus tears, which were not identified by the reporting radiologist. In our series, the MRI scan itself was more accurate than the reporting.

How long does a negative MRI take to be fixed?

Patients with negative MRI scans had a mean delay to surgery of 33 weeks compared to 18 weeks for patients with positive MRI scans. Patients with false negative MRI results may wait longer for their surgery.