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General Features of the Meniscus

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Hello everybody and uh, welcome to the second day

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of our course MRI of the pelvis and lower extremity.

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And today as well as tomorrow we'll be focusing on the knee.

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Uh, much of today will be spent discussing the meniscus

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of the knee, although we will also discuss some ligaments

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toward the end of this particular day.

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My job in this first lecture of 90 minutes is

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to talk about the meniscus of the knee

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and in fact talk about function and dysfunction of it.

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I have two or three general objectives.

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I've listed them here.

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Number one, to review meniscal structure

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and pathophysiology with emphasis on the collagen framework.

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And that's gonna be critical

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to understand the pathology that we're gonna see.

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We're gonna talk about classic patterns

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of meniscal failure based on particularly

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the collagen framework.

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And then toward the end of the lecture we'll talk about some

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of the diagnostic pitfalls that we have to deal with,

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including evaluation of the postoperative meniscus.

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Now, to make that a little bit easier, occasionally,

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not often, you're gonna see this little man with his, uh,

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board his whiteboard next to it.

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And whenever you see that it'll appear on the left hand part

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of the slide, you wanna pay particular attention to

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what is written there

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because those will be the most important points

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during this lecture.

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So let's talk briefly about some general features

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that the articular disc menisci and labra have in common.

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Common. Uh,

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these tissues are histologically a transitional type

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of tissue between fibrous connective tissue

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and hylan cartilage.

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They generally are poorly vascularized,

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and as we'll discuss with regard to the meniscus,

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they have peripheral vascularity.

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As we get older, all of these types of materials,

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disc menisci and labra undergo degeneration,

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and in some cases, calcification and the images.

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As you look on the right, you can see calcium

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pyrophosphate crystal deposition within the knee meniscus,

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as well as the hyland cartilage about the knee.

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And in the middle image, you can see

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that there's similar pyrophosphate crystal deposition within

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a torn triangular fibrocartilage disc of the wrist.

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In addition, these tissues may undergo

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traumatic related abnormalities that can lead

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to significant findings.

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And we've already discussed the abnormalities

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that occur in the acetabular labrum.

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And you can see the images of that at the bottom right.

Report

Faculty

Donald Resnick, MD

Professor Emeritus, Department of Radiology

University of California, San Diego

Mini N. Pathria, MD, FRCP(C)

Division Chief, Musculoskeletal Imaging

University of California San Diego

Eric Y. Chang, MD

Adjunct Professor, Radiology

University of California, San Diego

Brady K. Huang, MD

Clinical Professor of Radiology

UC San Diego Medical Center

Tags

Musculoskeletal (MSK)

MRI

Knee