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Objective: This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of osteonecrosis (ON) in juvenile systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients using joint-specific and wholebody MRI; to explore risk factors that are associated with the development of ON; and to evaluate prospectively patients 1 year after initial imaging. Method: Within a 2 year period, we studied 40 juvenile SLE patients (aged 8-18 years) with a history of steroid use of more than 3 months duration. Risk factors including disease activity, corticosteroid use, vasculitis, Raynaud's phenomenon and lipid profile were evaluated. All patients underwent MRI of the hips, knees and ankles using jointspecific MRI. Whole-body STIR (short tau inversion recovery) MRI was performed in all patients with ON lesions. Results: Osteonecrosis was identified in 7 patients (17.5 %) upon joint-specific MRI. Whole-body STIR MRI detected ON in 6 of these 7 patients. There was no significant difference between the ON and non-ON groups in the risk factors studied. One patient had pre-existing symptomatic ON. At 1 year follow-up, the ON lesions had resolved in one patient, remained stable in four and decreased in size in two. No asymptomatic patients with ON developed clinical manifestations. Conclusion: Whole-body STIR MRI may be useful in detecting ON lesions in juvenile SLE patients but larger studies are needed to define its role.

BackgroundMany clinical and experimental studies have been done to analyze the anatomical and functional aspects of the internal auditory canal (IAC) in human beings since there are great inter-individual variability and structural variations that may occur regarding the other adjacent structures.ObjectivesThe purpose of this study was to characterize the morphology of the internal auditory canal (IAC) during development using high resolution computed tomography (CT) and to analyze its dimensions, which will be determined by measuring the nearby areas and structures using a system of digital image processing.Patients and MethodsCT images of the IAC of 110 normal subjects aged 1 to 92 years (mean age, 46.5 years) of both genders were reviewed to determine the shape, area, opening width (OW), longitudinal length (LL), vertical diameter (VD) and distance from the vestibular aqueduct.ResultsThe shapes observed in children and adults were funnel-shaped (74% and 58.3%, respectively), cylindrical (22% and 30.9%, respectively) and bud-shaped (4% and 10.8%, respectively). The measurements by CT in children were: area= 50.30 mm2, OW = 7.53 mm, length = 11.17 mm, VD = 4.82 mm and the distance between the IAC and the vestibular aqueduct (VA) = 12.63 mm. In adults, the measurements were: area = 44.64 mm2, OW = 7.10 mm, length = 9.84 mm, VD = 4.47 mm and the distance between IAC and VA = 11.17 mm.ConclusionsCT images showed that the IAC has different shapes and when the measurements obtained for children were compared with those of adults, the parameters that presented statistically significant differences in either gender were length and diameter.

The qualitative and quantitative resonance analyses are useful in detecting clinically active disease in patients with dermatomyositis.

WBMRI allows us to evaluate the extent and symmetry of muscle disease and inflammatory activity. NFC is an important additional examination to assess disease activity.