Brown, J et al. Clinical versus MRI grading of the medial collateral ligament in acute knee injury. Research in Sports Medicine, ahead of print, 2022, 1-5.
Abstract
Sensitivity, specificity, and agreement between clinical and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) gradings of the medial collateral ligament (MCL) after acute knee injury were evaluated in 362 patients. Ninety-seven per cent were injured during sports/recreation. Sensitivity and specificity of MRI for grade II or III MCL injury was 68% (95% CI 58–77%) and 90% (95% CI 86–93%), respectively. Weighted Kappa analysis showed moderate agreement between clinical and MRI grading (0.56 [95% CI 0.48–0.65]). Findings were similar for patients with and without concomitant cruciate ligament rupture (0.57 [95% CI 0.48–0.66] and 0.55 [95% CI 0.35–0.75], respectively) and for specialists in orthopaedics and knee sub-specialists (0.55 [95% CI 0.39–0.70] and 0.57 [95% CI 0.47–0.67], respectively). Agreement between clinical and MRI grading of MCL injuries by orthopaedic specialists in a general hospital is at least moderate regardless of the presence of cruciate ligament injury.