Effect of radiosynovectomy in patients with inflammatory joint disorders not caused by rheumatoid arthritis

Aim: Effect of radiosynovectomy (RS) should be evaluated both by subjective and objective parameters in patients with osteoarthritis and in patients w ith inflammatory joint disorders not caused by rheumatoid arthritis. Method s: A total of 98 joints in 61 patients were investigated. Patients were div ided into two groups. The first group included 35 patients with therapy-res istant effusions caused by severe osteoarthritis (46 joints). The second gr oup consisted of 26 patients (52 joints) with ankylosing spondylitis, react ive arthritis, undifferentiated spondylarthropathy, psoriatic arthritis, pi gmented villo-nodular synovitis, and recurrent synovitis following surgery. Effect of RS was evaluated by a standardized questionnaire and quantified by T/B-ratios derived from blood pool images prior to and after RS. Results : Within the first patient group suffering from osteoarthritis, 40% showed a good or excellent improvement of clinical symptoms, 51% were unchanged, a nd in 9% symptoms worsened. Similar results were found in the second patien t group. The majority of unchanged results were small finger joints. In con trast, wrist and knee joints showed a better improvement. Good correlation between results of bone scan and patients subjective impression was found i n 38% and 67% in the first and the second patient group, respectively. Conc lusion: Radiosynovectomy might be an effective treatment in osteoarthritis and inflammatory joint disorders not caused by rheumatoid arthritis.