Hip MRI: How Useful Is Intraarticular Contrast Material for Evaluating Surgically Proven Lesions of the Labrum and Articular Cartilage?

OBJECTIVE. The objective of our study was to prospectively compare the diagnostic performance of MR arthrography and conventional MRI with surgical correlation in the same patient for detecting labrum and articular cartilage defects. SUBJECTS AND METHODS. Twenty-eight patients (mean age, 31.8 years) underwent MR arthrography, conventional MRI, and subsequent hip surgery, which served as the reference standard. Labrum and cartilage defects were evaluated at MRI by two independent readers. A McNemar test and kappa statistics were used for statistical analysis. RESULTS. At surgery, 31 labral tears were identified. MR arthrography had an advantage over conventional MRI for detecting labral tears at the anterosuperior quadrant (sensitivity of MR arthrography, 81% and 69% for readers 1 and 2, respectively; sensitivity of conventional MRI, 50% for both readers); this difference in performance between MR arthrography and conventional MRI was statistically significant for reader 1 (p = 0.02) but not for reader 2 (...