Abstract

Objective

To determine if ulnar variance can be evaluated by magnetic resonance (MR) imaging and if this measure can be used as a reliable indicator when correlated to the gold standard technique, conventional radiography (CR).

Materials and methods

From January to July 2018, the MR images of 64 participants, comprising 66 wrists (mean age 34.9 years; 33 females; 31 males), were obtained. Among those, 29 were referred for evaluation of the wrist for different medical reasons and 35 were asymptomatic volunteers from our radiology group. All subjects had a plain radiography of the wrist in a posteroanterior view with a mean interval between images of 1 day. Local ethics committee approved the study and written informed consent was obtained from all patients. Two musculoskeletal radiologists evaluated the images. Correlation coefficients and a linear regression model were used for statistical analyses.

Results

Intra- and inter-observer analyses were performed for both diagnostic methods with results showing concordance (intra-observer: kappa score: MR 0.915/CR 0.931; p < 0.05; inter-observer: kappa score: MR 0.857/CR 0.931; p < 0.05). The intraclass correlations of MR and CR to evaluate agreement between the radiologists was slightly higher for radiologist #1 (0.771) than for radiologist #2 (0.659). A linear regression model showed good model fit indicating that MR does correlate with the ulnar variance as measured by CR (CR = 0.554 + 0.897 × MR, R² = 0.665).

Conclusion

Although CR is the gold standard method for the evaluation of ulnar variance, our study demonstrated that MR can be used as a reliable qualitative option.

中文翻译：

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在腕部MR成像上评估尺骨方差：这是一种可靠的措施吗？

摘要

目的

为了确定尺骨方差是否可以通过磁共振（MR）成像进行评估，以及当与常规放射线照相（CR）的金标准技术相关联时，该措施是否可以用作可靠的指标。

材料和方法

从2018年1月至2018年7月，获得了包括66个手腕（平均年龄34.9岁; 33位女性; 31位男性）的64位参与者的MR图像。其中，有29位因不同医学原因被推荐进行腕部评估，还有35位来自我们放射科的无症状志愿者。所有受试者均在后前视图中对腕部进行了放射照相，平均间隔为1天。当地伦理委员会批准了该研究，并从所有患者中获得了书面知情同意书。两名肌肉骨骼放射科医生对图像进行了评估。相关系数和线性回归模型用于统计分析。

结果

两种诊断方法的观察者间和观察者间分析均显示出一致性（观察者内：kappa评分：MR 0.915 / CR 0.931; p <0.05;观察者间：kappa评分：MR 0.857 / CR 0.931; p < 0.05）。放射科医生＃1（0.771）的MR和CR在评估放射科医生之间的一致性的类内相关性略高于放射科医生＃2（0.659）。线性回归模型显示良好的模型拟合，表明MR与通过CR测量的尺骨方差相关（CR = 0.554 + 0.897×MR，R ² = 0.665）。

结论

尽管CR是评估尺骨变异的金标准方法，但我们的研究表明MR可以用作可靠的定性选择。