MRI of the left knee after a twisting injury shows a small bruise of the bone in the inner part of the thigh bone at the knee, with possible minor cartilage separation but no full defect, plus a small cartilage crack behind the kneecap and a small amount of joint fluid. No tears of the meniscus, ligaments or tendons were found.
Severity reflects your radiologist's own wording — not an AI judgment.
New or worsening symptoms? Contact your doctor promptly, whatever this summary says.
Small bone contusion / focus of bone marrow edema with possible small focus of subjacent chondral delamination; negative for transchondral defect and cortical violation.
In plain words: There is a small bruise in the bone on the inner side of the thigh bone where it meets the knee, with fluid within the bone. The cartilage over it may be slightly lifted, but there is no full break through the bone or cartilage.
Peripheral chondral fissure of the medial patellar facet; otherwise chondral surfaces are unremarkable and normal in caliber and signal intensity.
In plain words: There is a small crack in the cartilage at the edge of the inner surface of the kneecap. The rest of the joint cartilage looks normal in thickness and appearance.
Small joint effusion.
In plain words: There is a small amount of extra fluid inside the knee joint, which is common after an injury.
Very small Baker's cyst.
In plain words: A tiny fluid-filled sac behind the knee, a common and usually harmless finding.
Normal in caliber and signal intensity; negative for meniscal, ligament or tendon tear.
In plain words: The cartilage cushions (menisci), the main ligaments (including the ACL), and the tendons of the knee all appear normal, with no tears.
Otherwise normal bone marrow signal intensity and alignment.
In plain words: Aside from the small bruise noted, the bones of the knee appear normal and are properly aligned.
Severity reflects the AI reading's own wording — it is not a diagnosis, and not your radiologist's opinion.
New or worsening symptoms? Contact your doctor promptly, whatever this summary says.
The meniscal body shows a linear and mildly irregular T2-bright signal extending through the normally low-signal meniscal tissue to the articular margin, with mild outward displacement beyond the adjacent tibial plateau; this is the most significant finding because it represents the greatest loss of normal meniscal architecture in the series.
On the intercondylar slices the ACL band appears somewhat indistinct with intermediate signal replacing the expected uniform dark stripe along its course toward the tibial insertion, differing from the crisp low-signal PCL seen on the same slices.
The lateral meniscus is lower in signal and more smoothly shaped than the medial side, but its posterior horn is partly distorted by adjacent fluid and soft tissue in the notch-adjacent slices.
In the posterior compartment behind the condyles there are a few small rounded flow-void structures and adjacent higher-signal soft tissue; the posterior soft-tissue planes appear slightly heterogeneous compared with the smoother anterior musculature.
A well-defined lobulated T2-bright fluid collection lies just lateral to the fibular head and proximal fibular neck, with a thin rim and mild indentation of the adjacent lateral soft tissues; it is the most significant finding because it is the only discrete focal abnormality and it is the clearest lesion on these slices.
There is mild surrounding soft tissue stranding/edema adjacent to the rounded posterior lesion, with partial effacement of the normal intervening fat planes in the popliteal region.
A small, well-defined low-signal focus is present in the subchondral bone at the posterior weight-bearing femoral condyle, with slight adjacent irregularity of the overlying articular contour; the finding is more conspicuous than the otherwise preserved surrounding osseous and joint-surface contours.
Within the bright marrow-and-soft-tissue block, there are two adjacent ill-defined patches of lower signal, more conspicuous than the surrounding uniform bright marrow; this is a greater loss of the normal homogeneous signal than the faint darkening seen on the immediately adjacent slice.
The soft tissues along the lateral patellar margin are thickened and hyperintense with a small adjacent fluid pocket, indenting the outer lateral patellar contour.
On these slices, no abnormality was seen in: the lateral meniscus, the medial and lateral collateral ligaments, the cruciate ligaments in the intercondylar notch, the cortical outlines of the distal femur and proximal tibia, the visualized femoral and tibial marrow, and the surrounding thigh and calf musculature and subcutaneous soft tissues.
The large central bone shows uniformly suppressed (dark) marrow signal with a thin continuous low-signal cortical rim on every slice; no marrow-bright focus and no cortical step are seen tracing its outline.
Bright (high-signal) fluid is seen within the joint, tracking between the two rounded femoral condyles and along the posterior aspect of the joint, standing out sharply against the darker adjacent bone and the suppressed fat. This distension of the fluid space is the most significant finding of this series because it represents an active change in a fluid-containing compartment rather than a well-defined static structure.
A rounded, well-defined bright (fluid-signal) structure sits in the posteromedial soft tissues, deepest on the more distal slices, abutting the posterior muscle bellies without displacing the adjacent bone cortex. This is the most conspicuous focal difference on this series; it outranks the vascular flow-voids next to it because it is a discrete fluid-bright collection rather than a normal tubular vessel.
A small rounded, sharply marginated low-signal ossicle lies immediately posterior to the lateral femoral condyle within the adjacent soft tissues; it contacts the condylar region without visible cortical interruption, displacement, or compression of neighboring structures. This is the most significant finding of this series because it is the only focal structural deviation identified.
An elongated, sharply bright fluid-signal focus lies within the soft tissues just medial to a dark tubular tendon/vessel, standing out against the intermediate-gray muscle around it; it is the most significant finding on these slices because it represents an abnormal fluid-signal collection displacing the adjacent fibers rather than a normal uniform muscle plane. Runner-up is the linear high-signal streak in the top-central soft tissue on the last slice, which is less extensive.
A bright, branching linear high-signal streak runs through the upper-central soft tissue and its subcutaneous fat, brighter than the surrounding suppressed fat, indicating fluid signal along the tissue planes there.
The left patella is positioned laterally and tilted relative to the femoral trochlear groove, with the lateral patellar margin approaching the lateral trochlear margin and the medial patellofemoral space widened; this is the most significant finding of the series because it alters joint congruity, exceeding the significance of the associated fluid.
A low-signal curvilinear fragment lies in the intercondylar notch adjacent to the posterior cruciate ligament, and it is the most significant finding on this series because it forms a distinct displaced intra-articular structure compared with the surrounding fluid and soft tissues.
A well-circumscribed oval structure sits in the middle of the field, ringed by a bright curvilinear high-signal rim and containing internally heterogeneous mixed high- and intermediate-signal texture; it is the most conspicuous feature of this series and stands out against the more uniformly bright surrounding tissue by its sharp margin and internal patterning.
Two thin bright curvilinear bands arc across the lower-central field beneath the rounded structure, distinct from and lower-signal-bordered against the adjacent tissue.
A small rounded low-signal focus lies at the left margin of the brighter tissue, darker than the uniformly bright background around it.
A rounded epiphyseal ossification center is seen with a curved dark physeal line separating it from the metaphysis. This open growth plate is the most defining feature of these lateral slices and outranks the softer marrow changes because it defines the developmental stage of the bone.
AI-assisted scan reading — not a clinical report
Issued: 2026-09-04
This document was generated by artificial intelligence from the scan images. It is an explanatory aid, NOT a diagnosis and NOT a substitute for a radiologist report. Always discuss it with your doctor.
Whole-exam read: 6 of 9 series, 150 representative slices in total.
This is an MRI of your knee, which uses a magnetic field to make detailed pictures of bone and soft tissue. The readings agree that there is extra fluid inside the knee joint and an abnormal pocket of fluid-like signal in the soft tissues behind and beside the knee. Several other possible findings were noted by only one reading, or the readings disagreed about them, so those points are uncertain and need a human radiologist to sort out. This explanation only describes what the imaging model reported and does not diagnose anything.
In general, extra fluid inside a knee joint can appear when a joint is irritated, inflamed, or injured, though on its own it does not tell you the cause. A rounded, well-defined fluid pocket behind or beside the knee can sometimes represent a fluid-filled sac (a cyst), but that is not something this explanation can confirm. Many of the other items were seen by only one reading, or the readings disagreed, which means they are uncertain: this can happen because MRI images can be read differently, and it does not mean any of them is proven present or absent. Findings involving the menisci, cruciate ligaments, bone spots or fragments, and kneecap alignment matter for how a knee moves and feels, so having a radiologist and your doctor sort out the disagreements is the important next step. None of this is a diagnosis, and only a physician who can combine these images with your symptoms and examination can say what it means for you.
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