title: The accuracy of musculoskeletal ultrasound examination for the exploration of meniscus injuries in athletes.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Meniscus injuries represent a frequently occurring pathology in athletes and require an optimum diagnosis protocol. This study aimed to evaluate the accuracy of ultrasound examination for the identification of meniscus injuries, in comparison with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), using the arthroscopy as reference.
  
  
  METHODS
  This prospective longitudinal comparative study included 45 athletes who were clinically examined by MRI and further, by arthroscopy, in a medical center dedicated to sport traumatology.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The conventional ultrasound exploration of the knee allowed the identification of a diverse pathology, presenting a sensitivity of 88.8% for the diagnosis of medial meniscus injuries and 70.0% for the lateral meniscus. The specificity was 77.7% for the medial meniscus and 96.0% for the identification of lateral meniscus injuries. Using MRI, a sensitivity of 69.4% was obtained for the medial meniscus and 75.0% for the lateral meniscus, with a specificity of 76.6% for the pathology of medial meniscus and 80.0% for the lateral meniscus. Statistical analysis, based on the comparison of ROC curves, did not show any significant difference between the two applied diagnostic techniques (P=0.061 for the medial meniscus and P=0.534 for the lateral meniscus).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The musculoskeletal ultrasound exploration of the knee joint, performed in a medical center with high addressability, by an experienced examiner, was able to identify the medial and lateral meniscus injuries with an accuracy comparable to that of MRI examination.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Târgu Mureş, Târgu Mureş, Romania.
authors.forename: Simona
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mureşan
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy, University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Târgu Mureş, Târgu Mureş, Romania - mircea.muresan@umftgm.ro.
authors.forename: Mircea
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mureşan
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Târgu Mureş, Târgu Mureş, Romania.
authors.forename: Septimiu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Voidăzan
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Târgu Mureş, Târgu Mureş, Romania.
authors.forename: Radu
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Neagoe
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001182:Arthroscopy / Q000379:methods; D056352:Athletes; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007718:Knee Injuries; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008592:Menisci, Tibial; D000072600:Meniscus; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012372:ROC Curve; D000070600:Tibial Meniscus Injuries / Q000175:diagnosis*; D014463:Ultrasonography; D055815:Young Adult