Incidental meniscal findings on knee MRI in middle-aged and elderly persons

Englund M, Guermazi A, Gale D, Hunter DJ, Aliabadi P, Clancy M, Felson DT · The New England Journal of Medicine

A meniscal tear or destruction was present in 19% (95% CI 15 to 24) of women aged 50 to 59 and in 56% (95% CI 46 to 66) of men aged 70 to 90. Among people with radiographic osteoarthritis the prevalence was 63% in those with knee pain, aching or stiffness on most days and 60% in those without; without radiographic osteoarthritis the figures were 32% and 23%. Sixty-one percent of everyone found to have a tear had reported no pain, aching or stiffness in the previous month.

Population

991 ambulatory Framingham residents aged 50 to 90, sampled from census data and random-digit dialling rather than selected for knee problems

Intervention

1.5-tesla MRI of the right knee, with symptoms recorded by questionnaire

Limitations

Cross-sectional prevalence in one community cohort, right knees only. It establishes how common a tear is in a knee nobody is complaining about, which is the base rate any imaging finding has to be read against; it says nothing about what happens next. Full text was not retrievable.