The development and early morphological features of feline hip osteoarthritis (OA) are largely unknown. Tears in the acetabular labrum and at the chondrolabral transition zone are suggested to be important in the pathogenesis of human hip OA, but in cats such lesions have not been described. We investigated associations between computed tomography (CT)-detected joint changes and microscopic articular cartilage lesions, the distribution of detected changes, and histologically evaluated the acetabular margin (AM) in hip joints from 20 cats. Histologic evaluation was undertaken on at least one joint from each cat. CT-detected joint changes and articular cartilage lesions were graded and the histological appearance of CT-detected osteophytes evaluated. The majority of CT-detected lesions and cartilage lesions were mild. Whole-joint CT scores and AM osteophyte CT scores showed moderate to strong correlation with cartilage scores. The odds were higher for presence of CT-detected osteophytes in craniodorsal, cranial, cranioventral, ventral and dorsal AM regions. Peripheral acetabular regions showed higher cartilage lesion grades than central regions. Tears, seen as fissures/clefts, in labral and perilabral tissues were common. CT-detected AM osteophytes morphologically presented as pointed sclerotic bone, spur-shaped bone or rounded chondro-osteophytes. The results suggest that CT is a valuable tool for diagnosing early feline hip OA. CT-detected osteophytes showed variable histologic morphologies, which may implicate different disease mechanisms and/or disease stages. Tears in the AM could represent an early event in feline hip OA and this warrants further investigation.

猫髋骨关节炎（OA）的发展和早期形态特征在很大程度上是未知的。髋臼唇和软骨唇过渡区的眼泪被认为在人髋骨关节炎的发病机理中很重要，但是在猫中这种病灶尚未被描述。我们调查了计算机断层扫描（CT）检测到的关节变化与微观关节软骨病变之间的关联，检测到的变化的分布，并从组织学上评估了20只猫的髋关节的髋臼边缘（AM）。对每只猫的至少一个关节进行组织学评估。对CT检测到的关节变化和关节软骨病变进行分级，并评估CT检测到的骨赘的组织学外观。CT检测到的大多数病变和软骨病变均为轻度。全关节CT评分和AM骨赘CT评分显示与软骨评分具有中等至强相关性。在颅鼻，颅，颅腹，腹和背侧AM区域存在CT检测到的骨赘的几率更高。髋臼周围区域比中央区域显示出更高的软骨病变等级。唇和唇唇周围组织的裂痕/裂痕很常见。CT检测到的AM骨赘在形态上表现为尖锐的硬化骨，直齿形骨或圆形软骨骨赘。结果表明，CT是诊断早期猫科动物骨关节炎的重要工具。CT检测到的骨赘显示出不同的组织形态，这可能暗示了不同的疾病机制和/或疾病阶段。