The Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, The Johns Hopkins Hospital, 601 N Caroline St., Room 4214, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA.
AJR Am J Roentgenol. 2010 Dec;195(6):1367-73. doi: 10.2214/AJR.10.4668.
Nonelderly patients presenting with knee pain often have patellofemoral maltracking or impingement abnormalities. There is a relative paucity of literature on the incidence and significance of impingement-related edema of the superolateral aspect of Hoffa's (infrapatellar) fat pad in these cases. Our study was designed to systematically evaluate the correlation of superolateral Hoffa's fat pad edema with various anatomic parameters of trochlear morphology and patellar alignment.
We evaluated 50 knee MRI examinations in 47 patients for the presence of edema in superolateral Hoffa's fat pad and associated anatomic abnormalities of the patellofemoral joint.
Of the 50 examinations, 25 (50%) showed superolateral Hoffa's fat pad edema, and statistically significant differences were seen between those with and without edema with respect to sex (6/22 men vs 19/28 women) and patellar tendon patellar-length ratio (1.3 ± 0.16 and 1.1 ± 0.12 for those with and without edema, respectively).
The findings in our study suggest that edema in superolateral Hoffa's fat pad may be an important indicator of underlying patellofemoral maltracking or impingement in younger, symptomatic patients.
年轻膝关节疼痛患者常存在髌股关节轨迹不良或卡压异常。关于髌下（髌前）脂肪垫外侧缘撞击相关水肿在这些病例中的发生率和意义，文献报道较少。我们的研究旨在系统评估外侧髌前脂肪垫水肿与滑车形态和髌骨对线的各种解剖参数之间的相关性。
我们对 47 例 50 个膝关节 MRI 检查中外侧髌前脂肪垫水肿及髌股关节解剖异常情况进行评估。
50 个检查中，25 个（50%）显示外侧髌前脂肪垫水肿，有和无水肿者在性别（6/22 例男性与 19/28 例女性）和髌腱-髌骨长度比（1.3±0.16 与 1.1±0.12）方面存在统计学差异。
我们的研究结果提示，外侧髌前脂肪垫水肿可能是年轻、有症状患者髌股关节轨迹不良或卡压的重要指标。
