Objective        To compare fat-suppressed proton density-weighted imaging (FS-PDWI) and susceptibility weighted imaging (SWI) in the diagnosis of meniscal tear of knee.       Methods        A total of 83 patients suspected with meniscal tear admitted in the of Centre of Joint Sur

gery from December 2011 to September 2012 were enrolled in this study. They all received 3T MRI

by the sequences of FS-PDWI and SWI before surgery. Two senior doctors

with sub-advanced title

qualitatively diagnosed the images based on the golden standard of arthroscopy. Semi-quantitative scores of all the meniscal tear images were also evaluated. The signal noise ratio (SNR) in the area of meniscal tear and the contrast to noise ratio (CNR) to gastrocnemius of FS-PDWI and SWI were compared

quantificationally.       Results        Very good consistence was found in the SWI diagnostic results from the 2 doctors in the 91 lesions (κ=0.839). Compositing the results of the 2 doctors

the mean sensitivity

specificity

accuracy

positive predict value (PPV) and negative predict value (NPV) of FS-PDWI were 91.5%

83.3%

90.7%

98.0% and 51.7%

respectively

while

those of SWI were 96.3%

83.3%

95.1%

98.1% and 71.4%

respectively

with no significant differences between diagnosis effects of them (

P

0.05). There was no significant difference in the semi-quantitative scores of the 2 doctors (

P

0.05). The SNR of FS-PDWI and SWI were 26.25±6.47 and 33.94±6.41

with significant difference (

P

0.05). The CNR of FS-PDWI and SWI were 4.86±3.61 and 6.38±3.31

with no significant difference(

P

0.05).       Conclusion       The sensitivity

accuracy and NPV of SWI are a little higher in the diagnosis of meniscal tear than those of FS-PDWI. The SNR of SWI in the area of meniscal tear is better than those of FS-PDWI.