Knee MRI Primary Care Ordering Practices for Nontraumatic Knee Pain: Compliance With ACR Appropriateness Criteria and Its Effect on Clinical Management.

Purpose: To evaluate the appropriateness of MRI ordering practices and their effect on clinical management for nontraumatic knee pain at the primary care clinics of a large public urban hospital.

Materials And Methods: In all, 196 consecutive MRIs for nontraumatic knee pain ordered from primary care clinics in a large public urban hospital over an 18-month period were studied. ACR Appropriateness Criteria (AC) scores for nontraumatic knee pain were retrospectively calculated from medical record reviews.