AnalyzeDirect

The upper end of the femur fits into the acetabulum, a cup-shaped socket of the pelvis, and articulates with it, forming the hip joint. Hip pain can be caused by many different injuries or conditions such as inflamed tendons, joint swelling and hip fracture. A diagnosis of the bony abnormalities that are responsible for joint discomfort can be made through a test called pelvic radiation.

However, considering that pelvic radiation could have severe repercussions on reproductive organs and lead to infertility, research is currently focusing on the adoption of radiation-free methods for assessing hip pain.

Pursuing this challenge, scientists from Washington University recently developed a protocol for a safe and thorough assessment of femoral and acetabular morphology using MRI, a technique which uses non-ionizing radiation. The study population included control subjects and individuals who suffered from hip pain, aged 18 to 60 years old.

From MRI images, measurements of lengths, inclinations and angles that characterize the pelvic-femoral complex were obtained using Analyze software. The scans were evaluated by a physical therapist with 19 years of practice, a radiologist with 4 years of clinical experience and a research assistant with 1 year of training. The three investigators independently performed these measurements to assess intra-rater reliability, the degree of agreement among repeated tests performed by a single individual, and inter-rater reliability, the degree of agreement among raters.

Their method proved to be reliable even when followed by raters with different backgrounds. All things considered, intra-rater and inter-rater reliability were good to excellent for most of the measurements, indicating that both experienced and novice raters can achieve trustworthy results using this protocol.

This study shows that MRI may allow for a comprehensive radiation-free measurement of femoral and acetabular morphology that can be performed by raters with different levels of experience. This versatility may be useful when performing studies with large sample sizes which would therefore benefit from the additional help of novice members of the team.

Tags: Orthopedic