DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2018.v06i04.090

Pages: 1821-1825

The role of MRI in the early diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis, tendon and bone pathologies in Rheumatoid Arthritis, helps in early treatment before permanent damage occurs. The study aims to evaluate the role of MRI in patients with known RA presenting with ankle/foot pain and to compare the different imaging features with previous studies. The study was conducted in the Department of Radio-Diagnosis, S N Medical college and Little Flower Hospital Ernakulam during the period of January 2013 to April 2015. Study group involves patients with known RA and having ankle pain referred to the Radiology Department, SN Medical college, where UGG was done and as further investigation, undergone MRI at Little Flower Hospital Ernakulam for the time duration of January 2013 to April 2015. Contrast enhanced MRI scan was performed using 1.5T MRI scanner (GE Signa HDxt). Total 72 patients (36 patients each in study group and comparison group) were included in the study. In our study, synovial thickening was the most common pathology affecting the joints in inflammatory arthritis and was present in 100% cases of inflammatory arthritis. Our major observations are, MRI could detect 100% (n=62) of rheumatoid arthritis were associated with enhancing synovial thickening, 84% (n=52) had joint effusion, 58% (n=36) had bone erosion, 93.5% (n=58) had bone edema, 42% (n=26) had tenosynovitis, 51.6% (n=32) had secondary osteoarthritis, 3.2% (n=2) had deltoid ligament partial tear. Synovitis and effusion are difficult to differentiate on unenhanced MR images, hence needed contrast enhanced study to differentiate between the two. Our results were comparable to the reference studies. MRI is the only imaging modality, which helps in the complete visualization of the joint, bony and soft tissue pathology. MRI should be used for the gold standard for the diagnosis of RA, to evaluate the extent and severity of joint involvement.