Hip and Pelvis X-ray Viewer: Read Your Own Film With AI Support
Drop a hip or pelvis X-ray study into the browser and it renders immediately — the femoral head, the acetabular rim, the joint space between them, and the surrounding ilium and ischium. Because everything is decoded on your own machine, nothing about the study leaves your device until you choose to send a rendered image for AI commentary. A pelvis film is a projection, not a cross-section: it flattens the hip joint into one grayscale image, so labral fraying and early cartilage thinning stay invisible until an MRI is ordered. What the film is very good at is bone density, joint-space width, and the angles surgeons use to describe hip shape. Most people land here with a discharge CD from an emergency visit, a surgeon's portal export before a hip preservation consult, or a follow-up film after a replacement, and want to see the same bone landmarks the report is describing before their next appointment.
Upload Your Hip or Pelvis X-rayWhat a Hip and Pelvis X-ray Actually Shows
A pelvis radiograph captures bone density, joint-space width, and femoral head shape in one exposure. It cannot resolve the labrum, the articular cartilage, or the hip capsule, but it remains the fastest way to screen for arthritis, a fracture, or the bony shape changes behind impingement.
Four Views, Four Different Questions
A pelvis series is rarely a single exposure. A standing anteroposterior pelvis places both hips in the same frame so a clinician can compare joint-space width side by side — narrowing on one side only tells a different story than symmetric wear. A frog-leg lateral, taken with the knee bent and the leg rolled outward, opens up the femoral head-neck junction to look for the bump associated with cam impingement. When a fracture is suspected, a cross-table lateral is used instead, because the patient stays flat and the leg is never moved, avoiding further displacement at the fracture site. Surgeons planning for femoroacetabular impingement often add a 45-degree or 90-degree Dunn view, flexing and abducting the hip to profile the head-neck offset from an angle a plain AP view cannot reach — the same view used to trace the alpha angle.
Standing Film vs Lying Down
Joint-space width on a hip X-ray is not fixed — it changes with load. A supine film, taken lying down, lets the femoral head float slightly within the acetabulum, which can mask early arthritis. A standing, weight-bearing exposure compresses the joint the way a full day on your feet does, so thinning that would be missed lying flat shows up as a narrowed gap between the femoral head and the acetabular roof. That is why most protocols default to a standing AP pelvis rather than a bed-side supine shot whenever a patient can tolerate standing.
Findings Hip and Pelvis Films Commonly Show
- Osteoarthritic joint-space thinning and Tonnis grading
- Femoral neck, intertrochanteric, and pubic ramus fractures
- Cam and pincer impingement morphology
- Crescent sign of early avascular necrosis
- Developmental dysplasia and acetabular coverage
- Total hip prosthesis alignment and loosening
Hip and Pelvis Conditions Visible on X-ray
How It Works
1
Upload X-ray Files
Drop your X-ray DICOM files or ZIP archive. Supports AP, lateral, oblique, and weight-bearing views.
2
View with Windowing and Zoom
Automatically renders bone and soft tissue windows. Adjust brightness and contrast, zoom, pan, and measure distances in millimeters.
3
Get AI Analysis
4 AI models independently assess fractures, arthritis, alignment, and bone density. Claude synthesizes a unified report with findings and confidence levels.
What You Can Do With a Single Radiograph
A single hip film loaded into this viewer is not just a static picture. Window and level sliders push through bone-density presets to separate cortical bone from the softer trabecular pattern underneath. Zoom and pan bring the acetabular rim or the femoral neck up close without losing resolution, and a grayscale invert can make a subtle lucency around a prosthesis stand out that is easy to miss at normal polarity. Built-in angle tools trace the alpha angle at the head-neck junction, the centre-edge (Wiberg) angle across the acetabular roof, and a joint-space or leg-length ruler between two points you place yourself. Because a pelvis exposure captures both hips at once, you can hold the two sides against each other on the same image instead of switching between separate files. None of these measurements are saved to a chart or sent anywhere automatically; they exist only in your session so you can note the numbers yourself before comparing them against what the written report states.
Making Sense of Report Language
Hip and pelvis reports lean on a specific vocabulary. A Tonnis grade, running from 0 to 3, is shorthand for how far osteoarthritic change has progressed on the film, from a normal joint to bone-on-bone collapse. Cam morphology describes an aspherical bump at the femoral head-neck junction; pincer morphology describes over-coverage from the acetabular rim — together they define femoroacetabular impingement. A crescent sign is a thin subchondral lucent line under the femoral head dome that flags early avascular necrosis, before the head itself collapses. Shenton's line is an imaginary arc drawn along the underside of the femoral neck and across the top of the pubic ramus; a break in that arc points to a fracture or a dislocated hip. Acetabular protrusion describes the femoral head migrating medially past the ilioischial line, and a report on a replaced hip will describe prosthesis position, cup inclination, and any lucency suggesting loosening.
One Flat Image, No Slices to Scroll
Unlike a CT or MRI series, a hip X-ray is a single projection — there is no stack of slices to scroll through and no volume to reconstruct in 3D. Structures in front of and behind the joint overlap onto the same plane, which is exactly why a second view (lateral, oblique, or Dunn) gets ordered rather than relying on one image alone. If a report calls for a 3D reconstruction of the acetabulum or a detailed look at cartilage and labrum, that requires CT or MRI; this viewer's plain-film tools stop at what a two-dimensional exposure can show.
When to Loop In a Radiologist
AI commentary on a rendered pelvis image can translate report vocabulary and explain what a measurement means, but it is not a substitute for a radiologist's sign-off. Bring the AI notes to your surgeon or physician as a list of questions, especially when a report cites a specific Tonnis grade, a crescent sign, or a cam lesion that could change a treatment plan.
See how AI explanations differ from a radiologist's readWhy Use Our Free X-ray Viewer
100% Browser-Based and Private
Raw X-ray files stay on your device. All DICOM parsing, rendering, and viewing happens entirely in your browser using WebAssembly and Canvas API.
No Installation Required
Works in any modern browser — Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge. No plugins, no Java, no desktop software to download.
AI-Powered Analysis
Four independent AI models can explain rendered X-ray images for fractures, arthritis, alignment, and bone density patterns. Claude synthesizes a consensus report.
Windowing, Zoom, and Measurement
Bone window highlights fractures and joint spaces. Soft tissue window reveals effusions and swelling. Zoom up to 4x and measure distances in millimeters.
All X-ray Views Supported
AP, lateral, oblique, weight-bearing, sunrise/Merchant, and tunnel views. Both computed radiography (CR) and digital radiography (DR) formats.
Downloadable PDF Report
Generate a professional report with structured findings, severity grading, model agreement, and recommendations for your physician.
Supported X-ray Formats
DICOM (.dcm) — digital radiography files
ZIP archives — containing multiple X-ray views
Computed Radiography (CR) and Digital Radiography (DR)
JPEG Lossless (1.2.840.10008.1.2.4.70) transfer syntax
Explicit VR Little Endian, Implicit VR Little Endian
12-bit and 16-bit pixel depth
MONOCHROME1 and MONOCHROME2 photometric interpretation
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this hip and pelvis X-ray viewer free to use?
Yes. Viewing hip and pelvis DICOM studies in the browser costs nothing and has no scan limit. AI analysis draws on paid credits, priced at $10 per session.
Does my pelvis film ever leave my device?
The raw DICOM data stays local, processed by WebAssembly in your browser. Only a rendered image is uploaded when you ask for AI commentary — the original file is never transmitted.
What is the alpha angle and why does it matter?
The alpha angle is measured on a frog-leg lateral or a 45-degree Dunn view. It quantifies how spherical the femoral head-neck junction is; a wide angle points to cam-type impingement, and this viewer's angle tool lets you trace it directly on your own film.
Why does my report mention a Tonnis grade?
Tonnis grading is a four-point scale radiologists use to describe how far hip osteoarthritis has progressed on a plain film, from a normal joint at grade 0 to bone-on-bone collapse at grade 3.
Can this viewer show early avascular necrosis?
A crescent sign — a thin lucent line beneath the femoral head dome — can appear on a plain film before the head itself collapses, and the AI review flags subtle lucencies for you to raise with a clinician. Confirming early avascular necrosis typically still needs an MRI.
Why does my hip series include a Dunn view?
The 45- and 90-degree Dunn views flex and abduct the hip to profile the head-neck junction from an angle a standard AP pelvis cannot reach, which is exactly where the alpha angle gets traced for suspected impingement.
Can an X-ray show a torn labrum?
No. A pelvis radiograph shows bone and joint space, not soft tissue, so the labrum and articular cartilage stay invisible on it. A hip MRI is needed to evaluate a suspected labral tear; our free hip MRI viewer handles those studies.
Why does my hip X-ray report describe Shenton's line?
Shenton's line is an imaginary curve traced along the underside of the femoral neck and across the top of the pubic ramus. A smooth, continuous arc is normal; a step or break in that line signals a fracture or a dislocated hip.
Hip Imaging Focus
On Analyze My Hip, the viewer helps you inspect hip scans and connect image findings with common pain, impingement, arthritis, and labral injury questions.
Common hip findings
Review hip labral tears, femoroacetabular impingement, arthritis, avascular necrosis, bursitis, stress fracture, gluteal tendon findings, MRI soft-tissue detail, and CT or X-ray bone detail.
Prepare for hip review
Use the hip condition pages to understand whether a report is describing X-ray joint space narrowing, CT fracture or impingement morphology, MRI labrum and tendon findings, or mixed hip pain patterns.