[Initial nuclear magnetic resonance tomography results of the treatment course of avascular femur head necrosis after femoral core decompression].

The vascular femoral head necrosis is a serious illness, especially when appearing in patients aged 30 to 50 years. Many etiologic factors cause a femoral head necrosis such as, for example, high-dose steroids, abuse of alcohol, defect of bone marrow and trauma of the hip. Often the X-ray photograph leads to the diagnosis in the second stage (ARCO 1992) or in the third stage, when the femoral head has begun to collapse. The stage IIc and III shows an evident enhancement in contrast media in MRI. Contrast enhancement is demonstrated by STIR, FATSAT, T1-weighted and dynamic screening sequence. The characteristics of the contrast media enhancement argue for an active concomitant process of destruction and regeneration. This stage has the best chances for a drug or a surgical therapy. The evaluation of the signal intensity by the dynamic screening sequence is considered as an objective contribution for the staging of the femoral head necrosis. This enables one to differentiate between the curable stage IIc and the stage III, showing the beginning of breakdown of the femoral head.