Objectives: This study has three aims: (1) validate a new radiographic measure of acetabular version, the transverse axis distance (TAD) by showing equivalent TAD accuracy in predicting CT equatorial acetabular version when compared to a previously validated, but more cumbersome, radiographic measure, the p/a ratio; (2) establish predictive equations of CT acetabular version from TAD; (3) calculate a sensitive and specific cut point for predicting excessive CT acetabular anteversion using TAD.
Materials and methods: A 14-month retrospective review was performed of patients who had undergone a dedicated MSK CT pelvis study and who also had a technically adequate AP pelvis radiograph. Two trained observers measured the radiographic p/a ratio, TAD, and CT acetabular equatorial version for 110 hips on a PACS workstation. Mixed model analysis was used to find prediction equations, and ROC analysis was used to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of p/a ratio and TAD.
Results: CT equatorial acetabular version can accurately be predicted from either p/a ratio (p < 0.001) or TAD (p < 0.001). The diagnostic accuracies of p/a ratio and TAD are comparable (p =0.46). Patients whose TAD is higher than 17 mm may have excessive acetabular anteversion. For that cutpoint, the sensitivity of TAD is 0.73, with specificity of 0.82.
Conclusion: TAD is an accurate radiographic predictor of CT acetabular anteversion and provides an easy-to-use and intuitive point-of-care assessment of acetabular version in patients with hip pain.
Keywords: Acetabular anteversion; Acetabular version; Hip; Radiographic assessment; Transverse axis distance.