Recently, several IPSG members travelled to Dallas to learn how to use Hipvasc, an imaging software developed for Perthes disease MRI measurements.

Several centers are obtaining perfusion MRI scans of the hip in Perthes disease, which is a MRI protocol that specifically looks for how much blood flow to the femoral head is normal or abnormal.

It is often difficult to  visually estimate the regions of normal and abnormal blood flow to the femoral head on a perfusion MRI scan.  Hipvasc is a software that uses a custom algorithm that calculates the amount of femoral head that has adequate blood flow in a perfusion MRI.   An example above demonstrates a typical Hipvasc output of several slices of a hip perfusion MRI scan.  In this particular hip, the more red shaded regions indicate good blood flow, while the bluer regions of the hip indicate poor blood flow.

IPSG members hope to utilize this software to improve reporting and understanding of perfusion MRIs in Perthes disease