Diagnostic Value of Weight Bearing CT for Detecting Meniscal Tears

Study Objectives:

Aim 1 Establish the accuracy of WBCTa and MRI for diagnosing knee cartilage and meniscal lesions in both surgical and non-surgical participants.

Hypothesis 1: Pre-operative cartilage and meniscal scoring on WBCTa is more accurate than MRI, in comparison with arthroscopic assessment.

Aim 2 Establish the accuracy of WBCTa for detecting persistent and recurrent meniscal root and radial tears not detected by MRI 6 months after meniscal repair (defined by diastasis of the repair or meniscal extrusion ≥3mm).

Hypothesis 2: Six months following meniscal repair, WBCTa detects persistent and recurrent meniscal root and radial re-tears not detected by MRI.

Study Type and Design: This cross-sectional, observational study will compare WBCTa with MRI to evaluate rate of detection of meniscal and cartilage lesions. The inter-rater reliability of WBCTa readings also will be assessed.

Inclusion criteria

• Male or female over 18 years of age with a knee MRI acquired in the previous 10 days to evaluate for suspected meniscal or cartilage pathology.
• Body mass index (BMI) ≤ 45 kg/m2
• Ability to stand with support without moving for at least 2 minutes.

Exclusion criteria

• End stage kidney disease
• Allergic to iodinated contrast material.
• Pregnancy
• Skin breakdown or rash at the knee joint which would prevent injection of the contrast.
• Any clinically significant degree of cognitive impairment or other condition, finding, or psychiatric illness at screening which, in the opinion of the investigator, affects their ability to ambulate to a sufficient degree and could compromise patient safety or interfere with the assessment of the safety of the study injection.
• Superficial or deep infection in or around the index knee joint or allergy to iodinated contrast media.
• History of inflammatory arthritis, meniscectomy, or end-stage OA