الفهرس 
MR anatomy of knee jointOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Athletic activity is a positive determinant of good health. In children and adolescents, regular sport is very important in their life as it helps them to keep fit.
Sports injuries of the knee are common, accounting for a significant percentage of all sports injuries as it is a large compound joint.
While injuries are common in many sporting activities, sports involving twisting and ‘‘cutting’’ movements and contact sports are most likely to result in knee injury. Knee injuries are especially common in female athletes, occurring several times more frequently than in their male counterparts participating in cutting sports.
Serious knee injuries result in decreased athletic performance or may be career ending in elite athletes. In recreational athletes, knee injuries result in diminished lifestyle and time off work. Failure to recognize and properly manage knee injuries can result in premature osteoarthritis in both groups. While both acute and chronic knee injuries are important in the athletic population, acute injuries account for most injuries requiring evaluation by MRI.
Sports injuries affect the knee menisci, ligaments, cartilage, bones, and periarticular soft tissues. Complex injuries involving multiple structures are common, and recognition of the full extent of injury is critical to effective treatment because in the setting of acute knee injury, the physical exam may be less reliable, owing to swelling, effusion, and guarding.
A carefully elicited history may help in establishing a likely mechanism of injury, but is often nonspecific. Therefore, diagnostic imaging, in particular MRI, plays an important role in the urgent work-up of athletes with acute knee injury.
MRI has been shown to be highly accurate in detecting acute injuries to various knee structures, significantly affects the clinical decision-making process and may result in fewer unnecessary arthroscopies.
In conclusion, Magnetic resonance imaging is performed more commonly on the knee than on any other joint and become the most frequently ordered MR examination of the musculoskeletal system as it is an excellent diagnostic tool that can aid in the evaluation of a host of sports-related injuries so it is now widely used for imaging injuries of internal derangement of the knee. Early MRI is cost-effective in the acute knee injury setting, in terms of cost, quality of life perception, and lost productivity.
The superb soft tissue contrast and multiplanar capabilities of MRI which uses no ionizing radiation make it superior to computed tomography (CT) and ideal for evaluating suspected injuries of the muscles, ligaments, menisci, tendons, and articular cartilage, as well as in the evaluation of bone contusions, occult fractures, and fluid collections around the knee.
CT arthrography is also an accepted technique but requires an intra-articular injection. Also plain films are widely used in suspected skeletal trauma and athropathies but are inferior to MRI in most other conditions. MR has also replaced nuclear scintigraphy and can be used to assess the integrity of the overlying articular cartilage surfaces.
MRI is a noninvasive tool which leads to its acceptance by the orthopaedic community and has virtually replaced conventional arthrography in the evaluation of the menisci and the cruciate ligaments, decreasing both morbidity and costs associated with negative arthroscopic examinations.
Therefore, MRI in conjunction with good clinical evaluation can contribute to treatment decision-making processes and assist in preoperative planning as accurate MR imaging diagnosis and interpretation allow a more complete identification of the extent of injuries and aids clinical management.