Doppler sonography of the anterior ascending cervical arteries of the hip:Evaluation of healthy and painful hips in children

OBJECTIVE, We evaluated the Doppler sonography of small feeding arteries to the femoral head in children. SUBJECTS AND METHODS. In a prospective study of 224 hips in 112 patients (m ean age, 5 years 11 months), the anterior ascending cervical arteries of th e hip were identified with color Doppler sonography. Subsequently, we measu red the resistive index (RI) with pulsed Doppler sonography. RESULTS. In 61% (137/224) of hips, a Doppler signal could be obtained. In a symptomatic hips (n = 64), the mean RI was 0.58. In symptomatic hips, the d efinitive diagnoses and mean values of RI included transient synovitis (n = 31) and 0.92, Perthes' disease (n = 9) and 0.67, and miscellaneous (n = 5) and 0.68. In 28 symptomatic hips, no definite diagnosis could be determine d and the complaints spontaneously disappeared during follow-up (mean RI, 0 .57). We found no statistically significant difference in the RI of symptom atic versus asymptomatic hips, except in patients with transient synovitis (p < 0.001). In 11 hips with transient synovitis that were reexamined after 4-6 weeks, the RI returned to normal (0.57). The RI in symptomatic hips sh owed a positive correlation with the amount of effusion (r = 0.69, p < 0.00 1). In symptomatic and asymptomatic hips, we found no correlation with age (p = 0.9 and 0.1, respectively). CONCLUSION, The deep capsular vessels of the hip joint can be evaluated on Doppler sonography in more than 60% of hips. Also, the RI is age independen t and correlates with the amount of effusion.