J Korean Radiol Soc.  1995 Jun;32(6):959-963.

MR Imaging of the Early Rheumatoid Arthritis: Usefulness of Contrast Enhanced Fat Suppressed SPGR Imaging

• Joo KB
• Hahm CK
• Kim SM
• Kim ST

Abstract

PURPOSE
To evaluate value of post-contrast 3-Dimensional fat suppressed Spoiled GRASS (FS SPGR) in detectiong subtle bony erosion and tenosynovitis of hands and wrists due to early rheumatoid arthritis.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Fourteen MR iraagings of the hands and wrists were performed in 7 early rheu- matoid arthritis without any abnormalities in plain radiography and in 7 healthy volunteers. All subjects underwent MR sequence of coronal 3D FS SPGR with and without contrast enhancornear in 1.5T MR unit. We evaluated the number of the bony erosion and tenosynovitis respectively in pre- and post-contrast FS SPGR images.
RESULTS
The abnormal enhancing areas were not demonstrated in 7 healthy volunteers. Seven patients had 25 bony erosions in pre-contrast FS SPGR and 52 bony erosions with tenosynovitis (n=10) in post-contrast FS SPGR. Enhancing joint spaces were shown in 8 cases
CONCLUSION
Post-contrast FS SPGR was better than pre-contrast FS SPGR in the evaluation of early rheumaotid arthritis and is valuable as a baseline study.

MeSH Terms

Arthritis
Arthritis, Rheumatoid*
Hand
Healthy Volunteers
Humans
Joints
Magnetic Resonance Imaging*
Poaceae
Radiography
Tenosynovitis
Wrist