Ultrasound examination for the diagnosis of chronic anterior talofibular ligament injury.
BACKGROUND
Anterior talofibular ligament (ATFL) injury is a commonly seen sports-related injury and a major underlying pathology of chronic ankle instability. However, it is difficult to accurately identify chronic injury of the ATFL.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the value of ultrasound (US) examination in identifying chronic ATFL injury.


METHODS
We evaluated 83 consecutive patients who underwent US examination for diagnosis of the ATFL injury and subsequent ankle arthroscopy. The arthroscopic findings were used as the reference standard.


RESULTS
Forty-four patients were found to have ATFL injury on arthroscopy. The accuracy of US examination for the detection of ATFL injury was 95.2%, with sensitivity of 97.7%, specificity of 92.3%, positive predictive value of 93.5%, negative predictive value of 97.3%, positive likelihood ratio of 12.7, and negative likelihood ratio of 0.025.


CONCLUSIONS
US examination is a reliable and accurate method to evaluate chronic ATFL injury.
Department of Sports Medicine and Arthroscopy Surgery, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
Yinghui
Y
Hua
Yongming
Y
Yang
Shiyi
S
Chen
Yehua
Y
Cai
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D016512:Ankle Injuries / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D000843:Ankle Joint / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D001182:Arthroscopy; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007593:Joint Instability / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D017844:Lateral Ligament, Ankle / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D008023:Ligaments, Articular / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011446:Prospective Studies; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014463:Ultrasonography; D055815:Young Adult