Ultrasound evaluation of cartilage damage in osteochondral lesions of the talar dome and correlation with clinical etiology: a preliminary report.

BACKGROUND The current study aimed to determine whether the acoustic properties of living human cartilage during arthroscopy differ between damage from trauma and that from pigmented villonodular synovitis (PVNS). METHODS Nine patients were evaluated with ultrasound during arthroscopy. As a quantitative index of cartilage quality, the percentage maximal magnitude (maximal magnitude of the measurement area divided by that of the intact cartilage; %MM) was selected. After ultrasound evaluation, the measurement points were divided into two groups on the basis of the etiologic findings (group T: cartilage damage from trauma and group P: cartilage damage from PVNS) and analyzed for the presence of significant differences in ultrasound analysis. RESULTS In the ultrasound findings, the %MM values ranged from 34.4% to 92.3%. According to the etiologic differences, the mean %MM was 81.0% in group T and 39.3% in group P, and significantly higher in group T than in group P (p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS This study showed a correlation between the ultrasound results and the cartilage lesion etiology. Ultrasound evaluation may be useful for elucidating the process of articular cartilage degeneration with trauma and PVNS.