Articular cartilage evaluation in osteoarthritis of the hip with MR imaging under continuous leg traction

We conducted MR evaluations of acetabular and femoral cartilages in 27 hips of patients with osteoarthritis and 10 hips of normal volunteers by a fat-suppressed three-dimensional (3D) pulse sequence using a continuous leg traction method, and correlated the results with radiographic assessment. Normal condition of the acetabular and femoral cartilages was clearly demonstrated in the normal volunteers. Grading of abnormalities was possible for each cartilage in the patients with osteoarthritis. In early osteoarthritis graded by radiography, a high prevalence of abnormalities was detected in the acetabular cartilage as compared with the femoral cartilage. Despite the structural difficulty in evaluation of the hip joint cartilage, our MR imaging technique can provide information concerning a wide spectrum of cartilage abnormalities even in the identical radiographic stage, which will lead to improvement in the evaluation of disease progression and in surgical planning.