Bush to get MRI on knee today

WASHINGTON - Doctors will check President Bush's knees with MRI scans at Walter Reed Army Medical Center today, following up on injuries that have curtailed his jogging.

The medical check will come during a presidential trip that will include a visit to wounded soldiers and the medical staff treating them.

Bush, 57, is having a magnetic resonance imaging scan on the advice of his White House physician, Dr. Richard Tubb, White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Wednesday.

Early in the summer, Bush suffered aching knees and a minor muscle tear in his right calf. That forced him to give up his regular running routine. The calf strain healed by the time Bush had his annual physical in early August, but in September the president said he believed he had a meniscus tear - a common injury to the cartilage that lines the inside surfaces of the knee.

"He's talked recently about his right knee - that when he runs he feels some occasional pain," McClellan said.

People with very small tears sometimes are helped with knee braces and exercises to strengthen the surrounding muscles. Or arthroscopic surgery can trim away ragged edges of the tear so the joint moves more smoothly, or remove the meniscus or repair it.

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