Meniscal tear. Diagnostic errors in MR imaging

To analyze diagnostic discrepancies found between magnetic resonance (MR) and arthroscopy, and the determine the reasons that they occur. Two-hundred and forty-eight MR knee explorations were retrospectively checked. Forty of these showed diagnostic discrepancies between MR and arthroscopy. Two radiologists independently re-analyzed the images from 29 of the 40 studies without knowing which diagnosis had resulted from which of the two techniques. Their interpretations were correlated with the initial MR diagnosis, MR images and arthroscopic results. Initial errors in MR imaging were classified as either unavoidable, interpretive, or secondary to equivocal findings. Eleven MR examinations could not be checked since their corresponding imaging results could not be located. Of 34 errors found in the original diagnoses, 12 (35.5%)were classified as unavoidable, 14 (41.2%) as interpretative and 8 (23.5%) as secondary to equivocal findings. 41.2% of the errors were avoided in the retrospective study probably due to our department having greater experience in interpreting MR images, 25.5% were unavailable even in the retrospective study. A small percentage of diagnostic errors were due to the presence of subtle equivocal findings. (Author) 15 refs