Legg-Calvé-Perthes disease in the evolutionary period: comparison of magnetic resonance imaging with bone scintigraphy.

Magnetic resonance images (MRIs) and pinhole scintigraphs were obtained in 40 patients (40 hips) with Legg-Calvé-Perthes disease in the evolutionary phase, the mean age at onset of symptoms being 6 years 7 months. The correlation between the uptake of the pinhole scintigraphs and the signal intensity of MRIs was examined in reference to the extent of the involved femoral epiphysis. MRIs depicted the extent of the involved femoral epiphysis more clearly than did pinhole scintigraphs. The uptakes of the pinhole scintigraphs corresponded with high or normal intensity of T2-weighted images on MRI. The femoral epiphysis in the initial phase (in which the signal intensity of the lateral area of the epiphysis on T1-weighted coronal images was low or intermediate and high or unchanged on T2-weighted coronal images corresponded to the lateral column [recanalization] on the pinhole scintigraphs) suggested a low risk of subsequent deformity. MRI is a powerful new technique to evaluate the femoral epiphysis in Legg-Calvé-Perthes disease.