Levodopa attenuates cellular apoptosis in steroid-associated necrosis of the femoral head

Xi, Hongbo; Tao, Weijian; Jian, Zhengguang; Sun, Xuefeng; Gong, Xiaohong; Huang, Lixin; Dong, Tianhua

Imaging observation. Prior to sacrifice, 10% chloral hydrate (volume fraction) anesthesia was intraperitoneally injected into the rabbits, and dual-hip X-ray (V-5000; Phillips Healthcare, DA Best, The Netherlands) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) (0.2T E-Scan; Esaote Europe BV, Cambridge, UK) were performed to observe whether there patchy density-reduced shadows were present in the X-ray images of the rabbit femoral head area. During MRI examination, rabbits were placed in the supine position, with their lower leg flexed and fixed with tape. Using a knee coil, conventional SE sequence T1-weighted imaging was performed [repetition time (TR)/echo time (TE)=490/14 msec], in addition to T2-weighted imaging (TR/TE=2632/96 msec), with no interval and the following parameters: Matrix, 128x256; vision, 14x14 cm; thickness, 3 mm. T1-weighted images demonstrated spotty, thin-thread and patchy low signals, and T2-weighted images showed spotty, thin-thread or patchy low or high signals, which were considered to indicate femoral head necrosis.