The Role of MRI Diagnostics in the Early Stages of Aseptic Necrosis of the Femoral Head

Abstract

The osteonecrotic process is accompanied by the destruction of porous tissues and trabecular bone tissue, leading to ocular deformation of the femoral head. MRI tomography is a unique method of noninvasive assessment of the state of bone tissue. With a sequence of different pulses on MRI scans, the hematopoietic and fatty bone marrow are characterized by different illumination parameters, which allows them to be distinguished. As a rule, the bone cuticle consists of 80% adipose tissue, so on MRI scans it has a high intensity with T1-weighted images (T1-VI) and moderate intensity with T2-weighted images (T2-VI). The hematopoietic bone marrow contains 2 times less fat than water and protein. At T2-VI, its intensity varies from medium to high, and at T1-VI - from low to medium, depending on the age of the patient.As a result, T1-VI is the most informative for assessing the ratio of fat and hematopoietic bone marrow.