Magnetic resonance imaging findings in patients with medial epicondylitis.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the MR imaging findings of 13 patients with clinically diagnosed medial epicondylitis with the MR imaging findings of 26 patients of similar age with no clinical evidence of medial epicondylitis. DESIGN AND PATIENTS: The study group consisted of 13 patients with clinically diagnosed medial epicondylitis. The control group consisted of 26 patients of similar age with no clinical evidence of medial epicondylitis. The medical records and MR imaging findings of these patients were retrospectively reviewed by two fellowship-trained musculoskeletal radiologists.
RESULTS: Eleven of the 13 patients in the study group had thickening and increased signal intensity of the common flexor tendon on both T1-weighted and T2-weighted images. The remaining two patients in the study group had soft tissue edema around a normal-appearing common flexor tendon. Twenty-one of the 26 patients in the control group had a normal-appearing common flexor tendon on MR imaging. Three patients in the control group had a thickened common flexor tendon which was of intermediate signal intensity on T1-weighted images but of uniform low signal intensity on T2-weighted images. Two patients in the control group had a thickened common flexor tendon which was of intermediate signal intensity on both T1-weighted and T2-weighted images. None of the patients in the control group had soft tissue edema around the common flexor tendon.
CONCLUSION: MR imaging findings of patients with clinically diagnosed medial epicondylitis included thickening and increased T1 and T2 signal intensity of the common flexor tendon and soft tissue edema around the common flexor tendon. The presence of intermediate to high T2 signal intensity or high T2 signal intensity within the common flexor tendon and the presence of paratendinous soft tissue edema were the most specific findings of medial epicondylitis on MR imaging.