Short-term follow-up of the juvenile rheumatoid knee with fat-saturated 3DMRI

Objective. To determine the correlation between clinical status and 3D, fat -saturated contrast-enhanced MRI findings in assessing the response to trea tment in patients with knee-joint involvement from juvenile rheumatoid arth ritis (JRA). Materials and methods. Synovial hypertrophy, effusion, cartilage and epiphy seal status were scored using spin-echo (SE) T1-weighted, SE T2-weighted an d contrast-enhanced, fat-suppressed 3D MRI in 42 knees of 21 patients. MRI findings were evaluated by scoring results and compared with the clinical s coring results. Progression, improvement and equivalence were analysed betw een 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 progres sion, improvement and equivalent findings of months 1-3 and months 3-6 comp arison of clinical and MRI scores were found to be 0.50 and 0.70, respectiv ely. Conclusion. Contrast-enhanced 3D MRI with fat suppression provides good dis crimination 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 m odifying treatment regimens.