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.