Role of ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging in the assessment of painful ankle joint

Abstract

Background Ankle pain may originate from several intra-articular as well as extra-articular pathologies and can be triggered by a traumatic or nontraumatic incident. Aim The purpose of this work was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of musculoskeletal ultrasound (US) about MRI in the evaluation of ankle joint pain. Patients and methods This prospective cross-sectional work was performed on 40 patients with clinical criteria of ankle pain (acute and chronic, traumatic and nontraumatic). All participants were subjected to US and MRI. Results Chronic left-sided nontraumatic ankle lesions were the most prevalent among our cases. The specificity, sensitivity, negative predictive value, positive predictive value, and accuracy of US (about MRI) to diagnose tendon disorders were (all) 100%, for Haglund deformity were (all) 50%, for tibiofibular ligament pathology, bone marrow edema, osteochondral defect of the talar dome and medullary aneurysmal bone cyst were (all) 0%, for anterior talofibular ligament pathology were 84.4, 100, 100, 93.1, and 95%, respectively, for joint effusion were 91, 100, 100, 70, and 93%, respectively, and for bone lesions were 18, 100, 100, 50, and 55%, respectively. Conclusions US and MRI are used for imaging evaluation of patients with ankle pain. US can be used as primary imaging investigation. MRI may be used to confirm the findings of US. However, it should be used as the first imaging modality in patients with marrow abnormality or deep-seated pathologies.