Short-term follow-up of the juvenile rheumatoid knee with fat-saturated 3D MRI.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the correlation between clinical status and 3D, fat-saturated contrast-enhanced MRI findings in assessing the response to treatment in patients with knee-joint involvement from juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA).


METHODS
Synovial hypertrophy, effusion, cartilage and epiphyseal status were scored using spin-echo (SE) T1-weighted, SE T2-weighted and contrast-enhanced, fat-suppressed 3D MRI in 42 knees of 21 patients. MRI findings were evaluated by scoring results and compared with the clinical scoring results. Progression, improvement and equivalence were analysed between 0-3 and 3-6 months, both clinically and by MRI.


RESULTS
Fat-suppression imaging generated high contrast between cartilage, synovium, effusion and bone. Correlation coefficients according to progression, improvement and equivalent findings of months 1-3 and months 3-6 comparison of clinical and MRI scores were found to be 0.50 and 0.70, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
Contrast-enhanced 3D MRI with fat suppression provides good discrimination between synovial hypertrophy and fluid. Fat-suppressed imaging offers better contrast between cartilage and synovium. Long-term MRI follow-up of JRA improves direct follow-up of pathological changes and helps in modifying treatment regimens.
Cakmakci
H
H
Department of Radiology, Dokuz Eylül University School of Medicine, Inciralti, Izmir, Turkey. cakmakh@egenet.com.tr
Kovanlikaya
A
A
Unsal
E
E
D000293:Adolescent; D001171:Arthritis, Juvenile / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D007719:Knee Joint / Q000473:pathology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male