The radiographic joint space width in clinically normal hips: effects of age, gender and physical parameters

Abstract

No effect of aging was detected on the radiographic JSW of the hip among normal individuals even at advanced ages. In contrast, height, femoral head diameter and leg length were directly related to JSW.

Radiographic case definitions and prevalence of osteoarthrosis of the hipA survey of 4 151 subjects in the Osteoarthritis Substudy of the Copenhagen City Heart Study

“…Recognizing these limitations, several authors have used minimum joint space width (JSW) as the primary criterion of hip OA (Dougados et al 1996, Danielsson and Lindberg 1997, Ingvarsson et al 1999. However, the minimum values for JSW defining hip OA have ranged from 1.5 to 4.0 mm, and until recently the natural distribution of JSW had not been evaluated in asymptomatic subjects (Goker et al 2003, Lanyon et al 2003.…”

Diagnostic Application of Multirow Computed Tomography of the Hip Joint of Japanese Quails (Coturnix Japonica)

“…Diseases of this joint were described in the publications of Goker et al (2003), Daysal et al (2007), and Sipola et al (2011). Research on human diseases are the most advanced, and directly indicate the need for the for research on articular diseases in animals.…”

Computational measurement of joint space width and structural parameters in normal hips

“…Some cohort studies proposed JSW of 2.5 or 1.5 mm as common thresholds of normal JSW of the hip joint [1,7]. However, JSW in the normal population may be associated with many factors such as age [7,8], gender [7,9], height [10], and body mass index (BMI) [10] of subjects, side of the joint [11,12], and hip structural parameters such as center-edge (CE) angle, an index of hip dysplasia [10,11,13]. Conflicting outcomes have been documented in the literature for these associations [7,[9][10][11][12].…”

“…However, JSW in the normal population may be associated with many factors such as age [7,8], gender [7,9], height [10], and body mass index (BMI) [10] of subjects, side of the joint [11,12], and hip structural parameters such as center-edge (CE) angle, an index of hip dysplasia [10,11,13]. Conflicting outcomes have been documented in the literature for these associations [7,[9][10][11][12]. Therefore, for hips with narrow JSW, but no additional osteoarthritic changes such as subchondral sclerosis or osteophyte formation, it is unclear whether this narrow JSW is caused from underlying degeneration of the cartilage or is related with normal alteration associated with aging process, body dimension, or mechanical adaptations for weight and BMI.…”

“…First, in some cohort studies, abdominal radiographs or urograms were used to measure JSW of the hip joint [1,7,9]. However, the direction of X-ray beams in those radiographs differed from those in standard pelvic radiographs; consequently, there may be significant differences in the measurement of JSW of the hip due to magnification variability [14].…”