Assessment of cartilage loss at the wrist in rheumatoid arthritis using a new MRI scoring system

Abstract

This MRI cartilage score demonstrated excellent reliability when tested in a three-reader system. However, cartilage loss in early RA could not be distinguished from that seen in healthy controls.

Standardized quantitative measurements of wrist cartilage in healthy humans using 3T magnetic resonance imaging

“…These values can be compared to the ICC of 0.18 initially reported by the OMERACT initiative [30] . Significantly, they are similar to those reported using the recent MRI scoring system related to cartilage narrowing in the wrist of patients with RA [1] , indicating that the reproducibility of our quantitative approach is similar to what has been obtained for a scoring system, a qualitative approach by definition [1] . The corresponding coefficients of variation were also similar using both techniques.…”

“…These sequences provide high spatial resolution within an acceptable acquisition time, i.e., about 5 min. This type of sequence has already proved its Table 2 Quantitative measurements of cartilage 1 Significantly different than the corresponding measurement using the VIBE sequence. Values are presented as means ± SD.…”

“…Progressive damage to articular cartilage has been appreciated in a variety of pathological situations including rheumatoid arthritis (RA) [1] and osteoarthritis (OA) [2] . In addition, early detection of such damage has important implications for both grading disease severity and for the assessment of therapeutic efficacy of interventions, underlying the need for reliable and accurate imaging methods.…”

Cartilage quality in rheumatoid arthritis: comparison of T2* mapping, native T1 mapping, dGEMRIC, ΔR1 and value of pre-contrast imaging

“…In conventional MRI, cartilage damage is made visible as a volume loss slowly developing over years [32]. Especially in the early course of RA, cartilage loss in morphological MRI may be absent [33]. The lack of sensitivity of conventional MRI to assess cartilage damage in RA has triggered the application of molecular MRI of cartilage [16,34].…”

Concepts and Indications of Rheumatoid Wrist Surgery

“…Studies have demonstrated that MRI can reveal improvement in tenosynovitis in response to treatment [ 17 ]. Scoring systems based on MRI have defi ned to grade the cartilage changes in patients with early RA [ 18 ]. In addition, bone edema on MRI has been shown, in patients with early disease, to predict who goes on to develop radiographic damage and may help identify patients who could benefi t from a more aggressive treatment [ 19 ].…”