Sonographic evaluation of the medial aspect of the knee in a population-based cohort study

The aim of this study was to evaluate the medial aspect of the knee with ultrasound (US).

This study included 71 men and 154 women (450 knees) with a mean age of 65 years. US was used to evaluate the medial joint space of both knees with and without weight-bearing. In each subject, the medial radial displacement of the medial meniscus, the peripheral joint space, and the number of osteophytes were evaluated. The subjects were stratified by age into five groups: 40-49 years, 50-59 years, 60-69 years, 70-79 years, and 80 years and older, and the US findings in each group were compared.

Statistically significant differences were noted between the 60-69 and over-80 age groups in medial radial displacements and peripheral joint spaces (p < 0.01 for both). The number of osteophytes significantly increased after 60 years of age (p < 0.01).

We believe that US is a useful tool for making a simple evaluation of the intra-articular components in population-based studies.