Stephen J. Matzat1,
Emily J. McWalter2, Weitian Chen3, Marc R. Safran4,
Garry E. Gold2, 5
1Stanford
University, Stanford, CA, United States; 2Department of Radiology,
Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States; 3MR Applied
Science Laboratory, GE Healthcare, Menlo Park, CA, United States; 4Department
of Orthopaedic Surgery, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States; 5Department
of Bioengineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States
Patients with femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) commonly experience chondral damage in the anterior acetabulum and may be at risk for early development of osteoarthritis. Conventional MR techniques are not sensitive to detecting these early changes in the hip. This study tests if quantitative MR methods using T1ρ and T2 relaxation times can detect regional changes in patients with FAI. Results show that standard deviation of T1ρ and T2 relaxation times (as measures of cartilage heterogeneity) are elevated in cartilage of the anterior acetabulum, indicating that patients with FAI exhibit sings of early osteoarthritis.