The second annual International Perthes Study Group meeting is less than a month away. Over 30 study investigators involved in the study group will be meeting in early October to discuss research progress, current treatment results, and plan for future studies. Additionally, the group will be meeting to expand patient outreach to better educate patients and their families about Perthes and current research being done on Perthes disease. We are looking forward to the great opportunity for our members with an interest in learning more about Perthes disease to come together and build upon each others’ experiences in treating patients with Perthes disease.

A preliminary study on the role of perfusion MRI on predicting the short-term outcome of Perthes disease is now published online in the Journal of Pediatric Orthopaedics.
7/1/2013
This study found that perfusion MRI findings correlated with radiographic deformity at the 2-year follow-up. This pilot study shows the promise of perfusion MR as a possible early prognosticator of outcome in Perthes disease that can be applied in the early stages of the disease prior to any deformity. Previous methods to evaluate outcomes once Perthes disease has healed could only be applied after the femoral head had deformed. Perfusion MRI also provides a 3-D evaluation tool for providers to evaluate how much of the femoral head is involved in the disease which could inform treatment options. To read the summary of this paper click here: PMID: 23872796.

Reference: MR perfusion index as a quantitative method of evaluating epiphyseal perfusion in Legg-Calve-Perthes disease and correlation with short-term radiographic outcome: A preliminary study. Du J, Lu A, Dempsey M, Herring JA, Kim HKW. J Pediatr Orthop. 2013 Jul 17.

IPSG Investigators awarded a POSNA Clinical Trials Planning Grant in 2013
5/1/2013
An IPSG project entitled, “Assessment of Quality of Life in Patients with Legg-Calve-Perthes Disease” was awarded a 2013 POSNA Clinical Trials Planning Grant (PI: Joshua E. Hyman, CO-PI: Harry K.W. Kim, CO-I: Hiroko Matsumoto, Norman Otsuka, Junichi Tamai, Charles T. Mehlman, Wudbhav N. Sankar, Harish Hosalkar). The purpose of this study is to investigate the validity of PROMIS in patients with LCPD. PROMIS was developed by the NIH to assess patient quality of life. PROMIS Questionnaire, UCLA activity scores, Demographic and Modified Waldenstrom Classification data will be collected on patient age 0-18 at any stage of LCPD. For patients 8 and older, patients will complete the self report and for patients younger than 8 years old, a parent will complete the proxy questionnaire. Columbia University will generate and distribute a list of unique login/passwords for each site. The IRB has been obtained at Columbia University and will shortly be distributed to participating sites. A conference call is scheduled in July to train study coordinators at each participating sites in questionnaire administration.