Background: Acetabular retroversion has been proposed to contribute to the development of pain and osteoarthritis of the hip. Conventional anteroposterir (AP) pelvic radiographs may represent a reliable, easily available diagnostic modality.
Objective: To obtained a reproducible technique allowing the anterior and posterior acetabular rims to be visible for assessment
Method: This is a cross-sectional study conducted from December 2015 to March 2017 targeting patients with hip pain in orthopedic clinic of Al-Kindy teaching hospital. The study sample consisted of 100 patients with hip pain who were investigated with Antroposterior pelvic plain x-ray, which was done for all patients, looking for cross-over sign, the patients with positive cross-over sign radiographs were sent for CT scan to ensure retroversion of acetabulum.
Results: Presence of a cross over sign was documented in 9 patients (9%). From these 9 patient only 8 were proved by CT scan to have retroverted acetabulum. Then the prevalence was 8%.
Conclusion: The cross-over sign is a reliable indicator for diagnosis of acetabular retroversion and the presence of a cross-over sign in a plain film should heighten awareness of the advisability of proceeding to full assessment .
