MR imaging of occult traumatic fractures and muscular injuries of the hip and pelvis in elderly patients.

Recent studies have shown the usefulness of T1-weighted MR imaging for identifying fractures of the proximal femur in elderly patients with negative radiographs after acute trauma [1-4]. The advent of fast spin-echo and fast inversion recovery sequences allows for the rapid identification of a variety of other musculoskeletal injuries of the hip and pelvis that may explain a patient's symptoms but that may not be seen on T1-weighted images. This pictorial essay shows the types of lesions encountered. Lesion prevalence is given for 20 consecutive patients examined.