Interchangeability of CT and 3D "pseudo-CT" MRI for preoperative planning in patients with femoroacetabular impingement.

OBJECTIVE

To determine whether a 3D magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) sequence with postprocessing applied to simulate computed tomography (CT) ("pseudo-CT") images can be used instead of CT to measure acetabular version and alpha angles and to plan for surgery in patients with femoroacetabular impingement (FAI).

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Four readers retrospectively measured acetabular version and alpha angles on MRI and CT images of 40 hips from 20 consecutive patients (9 female patients, 11 male patients; mean age, 26.0 ± 6.5 years) with FAI. 3D models created from MRI and CT images were assessed by 2 orthopedic surgeons to determine the need for femoroplasty and/or acetabuloplasty. Interchangeability of MRI with CT was tested by comparing agreement between 2 readers using CT (intramodality) with agreement between 1 reader using CT and 1 using MRI (intermodality).

RESULTS

Intramodality and intermodality agreement values were nearly identical for acetabular version and alpha angle measurements and for surgical planning. Increases in inter-reader disagreement for acetabular version angle, alpha angle, and surgical planning when MRI was substituted for CT were - 2.1% (95% confidence interval [CI], - 7.7 to + 3.5%; p = 0.459), - 0.6% (95% CI, - 8.6 to + 7.3%; p = 0.878), and 0% (95% CI, - 15.1 to + 15.1%; p = 1.0), respectively, when an agreement criterion ≤ 5° was used for angle measurements.

CONCLUSION

Pseudo-CT MRI was interchangeable with CT for measuring acetabular version and highly favorable for interchangeability for measuring alpha angle and for surgical planning, suggesting that MRI could replace CT in assessing patients with FAI.