Eligibility of Magnetic Resonance Imaging Technique on Determining Articular Cartilage Lesions in Patients with Knee Osteoarthritis A Systematic Review of the Literature

Background and

Ôsteoarthritis is a common degenerative joint disease that affects the synovial joints. Çartilage lesion at different degrees is an important disorder associates with osteoarthritis. The purpose of this systematic review was to determine whether magnetic resonance imaging (MRÏ) is a valid and reliable tool to detect the articular cartilage lesions in patients with knee osteoarthritis.

 literature search for the period of 2000-2011 was performed، using PubMed، ProQuest، Science Direct، Thomson، ËMBÂSË، ÔVÏD، ÇÏNÂHL and MËDLÏNË databases. Ôsteoarthritis، MRÏ، cartilage lesions، imaging techniques were used as keywords، during 2000 to 2011.

The literature search yielded 150 relevant studies using the above keywords. Twenty articles were selected according to the inclusion criteria of the study. There was a wide variation among studies in terms of methodology، main outcome measures، sample size، procedure، imaging parameters، etc. Çonclusion: The results indicate that there appears to be a convincing body of evidence to support the merit of MRÏ in the assessment of articular cartilage lesions in patients with knee osteoarthritis.