To all the doctors or ones who play doctors on ST I need some help with knee pain diagnosis. My ART doc is not sure and I have an Ortho appointment set up but wanted to see if I could get some ST feedback.
Nothing shows up on MRI and it is not directly below kneecap or on outside of knee but it is a similair sharp pain like ITB. It is a very direct area to the lower outside of kneecap which I can locate by digging my finger into the area. It’s easier to locate the straighter my leg is and hurts when I bend and straighten leg but not flex the muscle. Biking it will not initially hurt but will progressively get worse as intesnity/volume picks up and running it will hurt immediately, even after 3 weeks of no running it hurt within first few steps. Although it is not direct ITB syndrome there could be some association since I do have ITB syndrome on that knee and pain seems to originate in this area of the kneecap and then progressively get worse towards ITB. Any thoughts, diagnosis, similiar experiences etc would be great. Thanks
Same symptoms that I had. Chondromalacia Patallae. Degeneration of the cartilage. If it’s not severe, it won’t show up on the MRI or XRay.
Or maybe just bursitis (inflammation of the bursa, the small sacs of fluid around your knee).
Thanks. What did you do fix it and what did you do for rehab? how much time did you spend not biking, running, etc? Were you able to completely correct the problem?
Almost the exact same experience. Negative on the MRI/X-Ray. Pain was around the 4:00 position on outside edge of the kneecap. Doc suspected meniscus.
Turned out to be a seat-height issue - problem only bothered me on the run though. 1cm can make a world of difference.
I’m not a doc but I had a very similar thing this year. Diagnosis…arthritis 
at 39. The “doesn’t show up on MRI” thing was not my experience though. Both docs could tell right away by looking at my xrays. I too had ITB probs on the same leg. Good luck.
was it from the seat being 1 cm too high or too low?
Sounds like what I am dealing with right now. Why are you so sure it is not IT band?
Mine hurts the most after a long day of being seated at work, having my knee bent for a continuous amount of time. It feels almost normal on the weekends, biking is manageable not great like you said and running is a no go. I was told it was the IT band.
One thing to look at is rotation of the tibia. If the ITB is stiff, this exerts a external rotation force to the tibia as the hip extends. Since the Tibia rotates it drags the patella against the outside edge of the knee joint. If this is indeed the case, look for hip flexor muscle imbalances, i.e. strong TFL and weak Psoas. Weak gluts may also contribute if your knee is diving to the middle while your foot is fixed on the pedal.
Kinesio taping the Tibio-femoral joint may help control the Sx’s and aid in Dx.