Healthy cartilage is essential for normal joint function, and osteoarthritis is the end result of cartilage injury. Hip osteoarthritis was once believed to be a disease of old age; however, younger individuals with femoroacetabular impingement have been found to have premature cartilage injury due to potentially treatable geometric hip joint abnormalities. Thus advanced knowledge of early cartilage damage in these individuals has the potential to affect their clinical course. Imaging provides methods for the noninvasive assessment of cartilage disease. Although much of imaging has been limited to the detection of physically evident abnormalities in cartilage, newer MR techniques are proving that it may be possible to assess the health of cartilage before physically evident damage is present. We review both the currently used morphologic techniques and emerging biochemical strategies used in the assessment of hip cartilage health.
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