title: Avascular necrosis of the femoral head. Natural history and magnetic resonance imaging.
abstract: We studied the prognostic value of MRI in 32 radiographically normal, asymptomatic hips in 25 patients at risk of osteonecrosis from glucocorticoids or alcoholism. The early findings were band-like hypointense zones on spin-echo images. No operations were performed. Life-table survival curves showed that femoral heads in which the hypointense zone traversed the middle portion of the head were most at risk of subsequent segmental collapse.
authors.affiliation: University of Tokyo Hospital Branch, Japan.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Takatori
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kokubo
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ninomiya
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nakamura
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Morimoto
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kusaba
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D005271:Femur Head Necrosis / Q000145:classification / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D015993:Life Tables; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D011446:Prospective Studies; D016019:Survival Analysis