Distal femur morphometry: a gender and bilateral comparative study using magnetic resonance imaging

Among the anthropometric factors to be considered, anatomic differences in the distal femur and intercondylar notch have been implicated as a cause of the different rates of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) rupture between men and women; therefore, in this study our aim was to evaluate a number of morphometric measurements in the distal part of the femur. Two hundred knee MRI examinations were analyzed: 56 male right, 44 male left, 42 female right and 58 female left. Measurements of the intercondylar height (ICH), intercondylar width (ICW), medial condylar width (MCW), lateral condylar width (LCW) and epicondylar width (EW) were obtained. The notch shape index (NSI) was also calculated. Statistical analysis for comparisons was done by Student’s t-test. Correlations between the parameters studied were calculated by Pearson correlation coefficients. Significant bilateral differences were not found (p>0.05). In all measurements, males showed significantly greater values than females (p<0.001). No difference was seen in the NSI between males and females (p>0.05). Conversely a significant association was obtained between age and all parameters. We conclude that the results of this study may be useful for anatomic evaluation of the distal femur region prior to orthopaedic operations.