Acute fracture of the neck of the femur. An assessment of perfusion of the head by dynamic MRI.
We performed dynamic MRI of the femoral head within 48 hours of injury on 22 patients with subcapital fracture of the neck of the femur and on a control group of 20 of whom ten were healthy subjects and ten were patients with an intertrochanteric fracture. Three MRI patterns emerged when the results between the fractured side and the contralateral femoral head were compared. In all of the control group and in those patients who had undisplaced fractures (Garden stages I and II), perfusion of the femoral head was considered to be at the same level as on the unaffected side. In patients with displaced fractures (Garden stages III and IV) almost all the femoral heads on the fractured side were impaired or totally avascular, although some had the same level of perfusion as the unaffected side. We conclude that dynamic MRI, a new non-invasive imaging technique, is useful for evaluating the perfusion of the femoral head.
Konishiike
T
T
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Okayama University Medical School, Japan.
Makihata
E
E
Tago
H
H
Sato
T
T
Inoue
H
H
D000208:Acute Disease; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003287:Contrast Media; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005260:Female; D005265:Femoral Neck Fractures / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology*; D019786:Gadolinium DTPA; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011859:Radiography
D003287:Contrast Media; D019786:Gadolinium DTPA