Radiology, Vol 209, 531-536, Copyright © 1998 by Radiological Society of North America
Proximal femur: assessment for osteoporosis with T2* decay characteristics at MR imaging
TM Link, S Majumdar, P Augat, JC Lin, D Newitt, NE Lane and HK Genant
Department of Radiology, University of California, San Francisco, USA.
PURPOSE: To use T2* measurements at magnetic resonance (MR) imaging to
investigate the trabecular structure of the hip in women with and women
without osteoporotic hip fractures and to compare this technique with bone
mineral density (BMD) measurements in the diagnosis of fractures. MATERIALS
AND METHODS: T2* maps of the proximal femur were obtained at 1.5 T in 23
postmenopausal study patients with osteoporotic hip fractures, 27
age-matched healthy postmenopausal control subjects, and five healthy
premenopausal control subjects. A modified gradient- recalled acquisition
in the steady state, or GRASS, sequence was used with echo times of 4-40
msec at 4-msec increments. T2* values were measured in five regions of
interest: femoral neck, the Ward triangle, trochanter, intertrochanteric
region, and total proximal femur. Additionally, BMD measurements of the hip
were obtained with dual x-ray absorptiometry. RESULTS: Significant
differences between T2* measurements were obtained in all three groups (P
< .05). BMD measurements of the hip also showed significant differences
(P < .05). For T2* and BMD measurements, odds ratios and areas under the
curve in receiver operating characteristic analysis were comparable.
Correlations between 1/T2* values and BMD were significant (P < .05).
T2* measurements in the proximal femur showed regional variations.
CONCLUSION: MR imaging decay characteristics of bone marrow could be used
to differentiate between postmenopausal women with and those without
osteoporotic hip fractures.
