[Early radiologic diagnosis of coxarthrosis. Relation between the cartilage lesion and femur head osteophytosis (including the so-called plaque sign)].

Radiological and pathological comparisons on specimen of femurhead and neck at autopsy have shown a statistical relationship between osteophytosis of the femoral head and ulcerations of the joint cartilage. Especially there are highly significant relationships between the length of osteophytes and the diameter of the ulcera. The "plaque"-sign shows to be a very sensitive indicator of early arthrosis. So there exist semiquantitative parameters for the X-ray diagnosis of early coxarthrosis.