AbstractAim: To evaluate the role of MRI in the evaluation of ankle joint and foot pathologies.
Material and Method: The present prospective observational study was conducted on 61patients in any age group referred to the Department of Radio-diagnosis and Imaging, Subharti Medical College & Hospital, Swami Vivekanand Subharti University, Meerut (U.P.) with clinical suspicion of ankle and foot pathologies. Relevant history followed by patient orpatient attendant consent for magnetic resonance imaging was taken and the patients were subjected to MRI according to the standardised protocol. MRI was performed with GE Signa HDe (1.5 T). Data so collected was tabulated in an excel sheet, under the guidance of statistician and analysed using SPSS 22.00 (for windows; SPSS inc, Chicago, USA).
Results: Our study was conducted on 61 patients. Maximum subjects were from the age group of 21-30 years (27.87%) followed by 31-40 (21.31%) and 41-50 years (19.67%). In our study the most common symptom was pain which included all 61 (100%) subjects. Acute and chronic pain was reported among 55.74% and 44.26% of the subjects respectively. Traumatic ankle injury was reported in 34 out of 61 patients, Ligament injury was found to be the most common which was seen in 14 patients followed by tendon injury in 09 and bone injury in 11 patients. 12 patients showed MRI findings of infection and 5 patients’ study revealed neoplastic pathologies. 10 miscellaneous cases included 3 patients each of Mortons’ Neuroma and Medullary Infarct, 2 patients of Plantar Fibromatosis and 1 patient each of Freiberg Disease and OS Navicular.
Conclusion: We can conclude that MRI is the modality of choice in evaluating ankle and foot pathologies due to its high soft tissue contrast resolution, and multi-planar capabilities.