The peroneal muscles attach near the head of the tibia close to the knee joint. If you get an MRI study done of the knee, would it include these tendons and any of the top ends of the muscles? If the report says nothing about these, does that mean they appear normal, or is it merely that they are not included in the scan?
BTW this isn’t my knee, and there’s no doctor I can ask.
Thanks!
Since an MRI is able to detect soft tissue issues, such a muscle and ligament damage, I would assume it would see these anatomical features, but a qualified x-ray tech would be better able to answer your question than I would.
As far as what the report would say, if it doesn’t mention an issue or damage then I think it’s safe to assume that it’s normal/undamaged. I don’t see any reason why the radiologist would leave something out that might be relevant to treatment options.
The radiologist’s report will generally be based on what the referring physician is asking for. So if the primary symptom is joint instability they’ll be looking at the joint itself and will likely only flag significant peripheral findings.
I’m not sure what you mean by “there’s no doctor you can ask”. Whoever ordered the MRI will be the one to tell you what the MRI shows. The radiologist’s report is more like a Cliff’s Notes version for when the imaging itself is not available.
For what I’ve seen looking at imaging studies as a RN the area of any selected study is usually large (you get the upper abdomen in a chest x-ray) so I would guess a knee MRI would catch those structures.