The tibial tuberosity is externally rotated in patients with patellar instability compared to age and gender matched controls

Abstract

Background: Several methods have been described to measure external rotation of the tibial tuberosity; all use femoral landmarks. Purpose: To develop reproducible tibial-based methods to measure external rotation of the tibial tuberosity in patients with patellar instability. Study Design: Cross-sectional study; Level of evidence, 3. Methods: Included were magnetic resonance images of 61 patients with patellar instability and 61 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. Three novel methods using tibial landmarks to measure the rotation of the tibial tuberosity (plateau axis-tuberosity axis [PA-TA] angle, tibial geometric center-tuberosity axis [GC-TA] angle, and plateau axis-midtuberosity point [PA-MT] angle) as well as a femoral-based rotational measurement (surgical transepicondylar axis-tuberosity axis [sTEA-TA] angle) and the tibial tuberosity-trochlear groove (TT-TG) distance were measured and compared in instability patients and controls using unpaired t tests, and the cutoff values for predicting instability were calculated using receiver operating characteristic curves. The correlations between the angle measurements and the TT-TG distance were analyzed. Results: Instability patients had significantly higher external rotation of the tibial tuberosity compared with controls with regard to the PA-TA angle (18.2 ± 9.6 versus 13.1 ± 6.8 ; P ¼ .001), GC-TA angle (8.4 ± 4.5 versus 11.5 ± 3.9 ; P ¼ .0001) and sTEA-TA angle (122 ± 8.5 versus 113.6 ± 6.3 ; P ¼ .0001). The mean TT-TG distance was also significantly higher in the instability group (18.2 ± 5.4 versus 11.5 ± 2.7 mm; P ¼ .001). The cutoff values were 17.5 (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve [AUC] ¼ 0.66) for PA-TA angle, 8.5 (AUC ¼ 0.705) for GC-TA angle, 118.8 (AUC ¼ 0.79) for sTEA-TA angle, and 15.2 mm for TT TG distance (AUC ¼ 0.863). PA-TA angle was significantly correlated with all other measurements (r ¼ 0.35-0.71; P .006 for all), whereas sTEA-TA angle had the strongest correlation with TT-TG distance (r ¼ 0.78; P ¼ .001). Conclusion: The tibial tuberosity was externally rotated in patellar instability patients compared with age- and sex-matched controls, and this intrinsic malalignment of the proximal tibia was demonstrated in the tibial-based measurements