Evidence map›Paper›PMID 36266368›Full record

SynthesisKnee surgery, sports traumatology, arthroscopy : official journal of the ESSKA2023

Magnetic resonance imaging is able to detect patellofemoral focal cartilage injuries: a systematic review with meta-analysis.

Francisco Xará-Leite, André Vinha, Cristina Valente, Renato Andrade, João Espregueira-Mendes

Abstract readMeta-AnalysisSystematic Review
PubMed Publisher
In one paragraph

Synthesis in Knee surgery, sports traumatology, arthroscopy : official journal of the ESSKA, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
0.4field-weighted citation impact, top 45% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed, 7 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. [EJNMMI research · 2025
    Article
  2. Article
  3. Construction of multi-scale feature fusion segmentation model of MRI knee images based on dual attention mechanism weighted aggregation.Technology and health care : official journal of the European Society for Engineering and Medicine · 2024
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.

Francisco Xará-LeiteOrthopaedics Department, Centro Hospitalar e Universitário do Porto, Porto, Portugal.
André VinhaOrthopaedics Department, Cova da Beira University Hospital Centre, Covilhã, Portugal.
Cristina ValenteClínica Espregueira-FIFA Medical Centre of Excellence, Porto, Portugal.
Renato AndradeClínica Espregueira-FIFA Medical Centre of Excellence, Porto, Portugal.
João Espregueira-MendesClínica Espregueira-FIFA Medical Centre of Excellence, Porto, Portugal. espregueira@dhresearchcentre.com.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7429-4900
Universidade do Porto · PTCentro Hospitalar do Porto · PTHospital Center of Cova da Beira · PT

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

purposeThe purpose of this study was to analyze the diagnostic accuracy of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to detect and grade the severity of patellofemoral (PF) cartilage injuries.

methodsA systematic review was conducted on PubMed, EMBASE and Cochrane Library databases (up to July 1st 2022) to search for studies that reported the diagnostic accuracy of MRI to detect and grade PF cartilage injuries as compared to diagnostic arthroscopy. Risk of bias was judged using the QUADAS-2 tool. Quantitative syntheses were performed to calculate the diagnostic accuracy metric-sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood (LR+) and negative likelihood (LR-) ratios, diagnostic odds ratio (DOR)-and presented as median with 25% and 75% percentiles. The summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curves were also calculated. Diagnostic accuracy metrics were calculated for all PF cartilage injuries and then sub-grouped by patellar and trochlear lesions. Diagnostic accuracy was also calculated according to the grading of cartilage injuries.

resultsForty-five studies were included for qualitative analyses and forty studies were included for quantitative synthesis. A total of 3534 participants with a weighted mean age of 38.1 years were included. Diagnostic accuracy was generally high: sensitivity (0.8, 0.6-1.0), specificity (0.9, 0.8-1.0), LR+ (6.4, 3.1-15.3), LR- (0.3, 0.2-0.4) and DOR (21.3, 9.9-121.1). The area under the curve (AUC) of the SROC was 0.9. The diagnostic accuracy was slightly higher for patellar (sensitivity 0.8, specificity 0.8, LR+ 5.3, LR- 0.2, DOR 28.8) than for trochlear lesions (sensitivity 0.7, specificity 0.9, LR+ 5.5, LR- 0.4, DOR 14.3). The sensitivity was generally higher when grading advanced (vs. early or intermediate) cartilage injuries of the patella.

conclusionThe MRI is able to diagnose PF cartilage injuries with reasonably high diagnostic accuracy (as compared to arthroscopy). Clinicians can rely on MRI to reliably diagnose PF cartilage injuries (with some limitations) which will play an important role in deciding for surgical or non-operative treatment. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level III.

Indexed as

CartilageMagnetic Resonance ImagingAdultHumansOdds RatioROC CurveSensitivity and SpecificityCartilageChondralDiagnosisDiagnostic accuracyMagnetic resonance imagingOsteochondral

Identifiers

PMID36266368
OpenAlexW4306939328

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.