Quantitative Measuring Of Menisci And It's Clinical Significance

ObJective1. To establish a MRI menisci anantomy database of patients in Guangzhou;2. To research the relation of menisci thickness,width,position and age,tibial plateau;3. To research the relation of menisci degeneration and cartilaginous degeneration,knee osteoarthritis.Method383 patients underwent MRI between January 2005 to February 2007 were internalized. The menisci, tibial plateau and condyles of femur were mearsured at computer. Then the patients were divided into normal group and degenerative group. Change of menisci size, incidence rate of peripheral gression and gression index of the two groups were compared. At the third step, the patients were divided into three guorps according to age, respectively including patients young than 30years, between 30 years and 50years, and more than 50 years, data of the three groups were analyzed by variance analysis. Results(Part)1. Width of medial meniscus: anterior cornu:5.67±1.37 mm, caudomedial part:5.61±1.73 mm, posterior cornu:9.21±2.71 mm;Distance between anterior cornu and posterior cornu: medial: 38.51±10.88mm, lateral:30.53±6.87 mm;2. Caudomedial part width of medial meniscus/ transverse diameter of tibia: 0.085±0.023; Caudomedial part width of lateral meniscus/transverse diameter of tibia:0.097±0.023; Distance between anterior cornu and posterior cornu of medial meniscus / longitudinal diameter of tibia:0.944±0.25;3. Width of medial meniscus anterior cornu:normal group: 5.27±1.57mm; degenerative group:5.96±1.13mm;Width of medial meniscus anterior cornu: group of patients younger than 30 years:5.28±1.38 mm, group of patients between 30～50 years:5.85±1.30 mm, (P<0.05);4. 20.9% of the medial meniscus were ruptured when the lateral ones were 9.45, the incidence rate of peripheral gression of medial meniscus was 31.68% when of the lateral ones was 7.6%.5. Menisci degeneration and cartilaginous degeneration correlate. The Pearson correlation coefficient was 0.877.Conclusion1. The MRI exactly showed the menisci: thin and narrow at the anterior cornu and wide at the posterior cornu. Longitudinal diameter of lateral menisci were smaller than the medial ones.2. The amount of caudomedial part width of medial meniscus/ transverse diameter of tibia, width of anterior cornu or posterior cornu of medial menisci/ longitudinal diameter of tibia, distance between anterior cornu and posterior cornu of medial menisci / longitudinal diameter of tibia were relative fixed, which offered a method for designing appropriate menisci according to the tibia.3. Menisci degeneration characterized auxetic, widened and incrassate, radius of curvature of medial femur increased. Menisci degeneration and the cartilage thinningz and is rough correlate. Some proliferate when the patients were 30 years old.4. More medial menisci were ruptured and more peripheral gression happened to the medial menisci because of their anatomical characteristic.