Chondromalacia patellae: fat-suppressed MR imaging.

PURPOSE

To evaluate the accuracy of fat-suppressed magnetic resonance (MR) imaging in diagnosing chondromalacia patellae.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Seventy-one patients underwent fat-suppressed MR imaging and arthroscopy of the patellofemoral compartment. Findings were classified as early or advanced chondromalacia or as normal and were correlated with arthroscopic findings.

RESULTS

Early and advanced stages of chondromalacia patellae were reliably detected, with positive predictive values of 85% and 92%, respectively. Specificity in early stages was 94% and in late stages was 98%. However, the overall accuracies did not differ substantially from those reported in studies that did not use fat-suppressed imaging.

CONCLUSION

Axial, fat-suppressed MR imaging accurately depicts changes caused by chondromalacia patellae. Early stages can be seen as intrasubstance changes of increased signal intensity. Results of this study suggest a high degree of specificity in excluding both early and advanced changes.