Role of MRI in detecting early physeal changes due to acute osteoarticular infection around the knee joint: a pilot study.

Physeal changes of any aetiology in children are usually diagnosed once the deformity is clinically evident. Between January 2006 and June 2007, 15 children who suffered from acute osteoarticular infection around the knee joint were studied. They were called up for follow-up six months after the onset of infection. All patients were evaluated by clinical and roentgenographic examination before undergoing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study of both knees "with the unaffected knee serving as control". Abnormal findings in the physis, metaphysis and/or epiphysis on MRI were observed in five children. This group of five children was compared with the other ten children for clinical presentation and course of disease. We believe that MRI is a useful tool in the evaluation of growth plate insult in the early period following acute osteoarticular infection, and we can diagnose and prevent the catastrophic complications of the same.