Characterization Of Patellar Ligament Using Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Abstract

The study provides characterization of the patellar ligament and measurment on sagittal sections by using MRI machine. It's a discriptive study mainly to provide the characterization of the ligament length and thickness. To correlate the findings with age, gender, weight, height and BMI. And to compare the results with the literature. The data was collected at Modern Medical Center and East Nile Hospital during the period from November 2017 to February 2018. Closed MRI machine was used, the study included a sample of 50 patients ( 35 males and 15 females ) with age range between (20-70) years old , whose mean age was (39.6±14.53) years old .The mean age of the patellar ligament length was (50.826±5.215mm) and the upper patellar ligament thickness was (4.148±1.015mm), the middle patellar thickness was (4.048±0.66mm) and the lower patellar thickness was (4.342±0.898mm). The mean female patellar length was (48.33 ±3.91mm) ,upper patellar thickness was(4.24±0.86mm) ,middle patellar thickness was (3.88±0.62mm) and lower patellar thickness was (3.72±0.45mm ).The mean male patellar length was (51.89±5.38mm) and upper patellar thickness was (4.10±1.08mm), middle patellar thickness was (4.12±0.68mm) and lower patellar thickness was (4.60±0.91mm). The patellar ligament length and lower patellar thickness are significantly different according to gender at ( p =0.024) and (p =0.001) respectively. The patellar ligament length have significant relation with the patient height at (p=0.000) and the upper patellar thickness was significant relation with age, weight and BMI at (p= 0.022, 0.033 and 0.021) respectively. As conclusion this study showed that MRI is a noninvasive test and suitable examination for characterizing the patellar ligament length and thickness.