Screening for avascular necrosis of the hip with rapid MRI: preliminary experience.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this work was to compare rapidly acquired MR images with routinely employed SE and turbo SE (TSE) images in screening for hip avascular necrosis (AVN).


METHODS
Twelve patients with findings suspicious for radiographically occult AVN of one or both hips were studied with our routine screening protocol (imaging time >7 min) and similarly weighted, rapidly acquired MR sequences (imaging time <1 min).


RESULTS
The rapidly acquired MR images were judged to be similar to the routine protocol in demonstrating marrow edema, irregular lines within the femoral head characteristic of AVN, and osteoarthritis.


CONCLUSIONS
The rapidly acquired MR sequences that we studied reliably revealed the presence or absence of AVN, marrow edema, and osteoarthritis of the hip in our sample population when compared with SE and TSE sequences that we routinely perform. Further investigation of rapidly acquired MR sequences is warranted, as imaging time may be dramatically reduced and patient throughput increased.
May
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DA
Department of Radiology, Medical College of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond 23298-0615, USA. damay@hsc.vcu.edu
Disler
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DG
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001853:Bone Marrow / Q000473:pathology; D004487:Edema / Q000175:diagnosis; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005260:Female; D005271:Femur Head Necrosis / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006615:Hip / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000295:instrumentation*; D008875:Middle Aged; D015207:Osteoarthritis, Hip / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D015203:Reproducibility of Results