Patterns of Articular Cartilage Thickness in Pediatric and Adolescent Knees: A Magnetic Resonance Imaging-Based Study.

To establish normative values for articular cartilage thickness in pediatric and adolescent knees using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and investigate for any associations with age and skeletal maturity. MRI scans were analyzed in patients 7 to 18 years old without osteochondral lesions, chondral wear/pathology, intra-articular fractures, or history of knee surgery. Measurements of articular cartilage thickness at the patella (medial facet, lateral facet, median ridge), femur (medial condyle, lateral condyle, lateral trochlea), and tibia (medial plateau, lateral plateau) were made on axial, coronal, and sagittal MRI. Descriptive statistics were used to calculate mean cartilage thickness by age and sex. Analysis of variance with repeated measures, analysis of covariance, independent samples A total of 240 knee MRI scans were included. Articular cartilage was thickest at the patella and did not vary with age or skeletal maturity. On the femur, articular cartilage was thickest at the lateral trochlea with mean cartilage thickness of 4.4 ± 1.4 mm in male patients and 3.6 ± 1.3 mm in female patients ( In pediatric and adolescent knees, articular cartilage is thickest at the patella, where it does not strongly correlate with age. In contrast, there is a strong inverse association between increasing age and articular cartilage thickness of the distal femoral condyles. The longitudinal reference data presented in this study can aid in pre-operative interpretation of knee cartilage under pathologic conditions in pediatric and adolescent patients.

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© 2020 by the Arthroscopy Association of North America. Published by Elsevier Inc.