Morphological index analysis of healthy femoral intercondylar notch under MRI measurement

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Objective To investigate the difference of morphological indexes of healthy intercondylar notch between different genders and different types of intercondylar notch and their relationship with age, and to provide evidence of the elucidation of the pathogenesis of intercondylar notch related diseases. Methods A total of 351 healthy adult knees (182 knees of 166 males and 169 knees of 154 females) were performed axial and coronal MRI examination and morphological measurements were taken. The indexes were calculated, the types were classified and the relationships between these indexes and age were analyzed. All the data were analyzed using t test, one-way ANOVA and chi-square test by SPSS 20.0. Results Two hundred knees were divided into three types(the other 151 cases could not find the right slice to classify): type A(112 knees, 56%), type U(83 knees, 41.5%), type W(five knees, 2.5%), and there was no significance of the percentages of three types between males and females(χ2=2.751, P=0.253). The notch width index(NWI) and notch shape index(NSI) of both axial and coronal slices had no significant difference between genders, while there were significant differences among the three intercondylar notch types (F=3.435, P<0.05; F=8.497, P<0.01). The volume of the notch had significant difference both between different genders(CSA1: t=3.311, P<0.01; CSA2: t=3.267, P<0.01) and among different types(F=7.635, P<0.01; F=4.531, P<0.05). The volumes of the young age group was the largest while the elder group were the smallest(F=5.346, P=0.024). Conclusions Among the three types, type A is the narrowest. NWI and NSI show no significant difference between genders, while volume of man is larger than woman. The intercondylar notch tends to be narrower as age increases. Key words: Magnetic resonance imaging; Femur; Bone and bones; Classification