Comparison of Accuracy of knee MRI with Intravenous Injection of contrast material with Intraarticular Injection of contrast material in Patients with Knee lesions

Accuracy of different methods of magnetic resonance imaging for detection of knee lesions is still questionable. This study was aimed to compare the accuracy of intraarticular contrast enhanced magnetic resonance arthrography and intravenous contrast enhanced magnetic resonance arthrography for detection of knee lesions. Twenty five patients who had knee lesions and candidated for diagnostic and treating arthroscopy were entered to the study. The intraarticular contrast enhanced MR and intravenous contrast enhanced MRI has been performed for them. The results of imaging has compared with findings of arthroscopy as a gold standard for calculation of each test sensitivityand specificity and the overall accuracy of each method. The calculated sensitivity, specificity and overall accuracy for intraarticular contrast enhanced in respect for MM is 87%, 100%, 88% and LM 77%, 91%, 84% and ACL 84%, 100%, 88% and PCL 88%, 93%, 92% and about the intravenous contrast enhanced in respect for MM is 48%, 100%, 52% and LM 0%, 100%, 44% and ACL 84%, 100%, 88% and PCL 30%, 100%, 72%. Comparing of overall accuracy of 2 methods has shown that replacement of intravenous contrast enhanced MR for intraarticular contrast enhanced MR is just acceptable for ACL and PCL lesions (P=1.000, P=0.063). We demonstrated that the overall accuracy of intravenous contrast enhanced MR for detecting of ACL and PCL lesions is comparable with intraarticular enhanced MR and both methods could be used as each other.