Novel Whole-body MRI may assess inflammatory arthritis in multiple joints in one examination: Study

Jane Freeston et al conducted a study to develop a novel whole-body MRI protocol capable of assessing inflammatory arthritis at an early stage in multiple joints in one examination.

Forty-six patients with inflammatory joint symptoms and 9 healthy volunteers underwent whole-body MR imaging on a 3.0 T MRI scanner in this prospective study. Image quality and pathology in each joint, bursae, entheses and tendons were scored by two of three radiologists and compared to clinical joint scores. Participants were divided into three groups based on diagnosis at 1-year follow-up (healthy volunteers, rheumatoid arthritis and all other types of arthritis). Radiology scores were compared between the three groups using a Kruskal-Wallis test. The clinical utility of radiology scoring was compared to clinical scoring using ROC analysis.

Key findings of the study:

• Fifty-five participants were included in this study comprising 18 patients with RA (10 cyclic citrullinated peptide (CCP) negative RA patients and 8 CCP positive RA patients), 28 patients with non-RA and 9 HC’s. The non RA group consisted of the following subtypes: 10 persistent undifferentiated arthritis (pUA), 8 resolved undifferentiated arthritis (rUA), 5 spondyloarthritis (SpA), 4 undifferentiated arthritis and 1 crystal arthritis.