Purpose
The heterogeneous group of rheumatic diseases,
known under the name of seronegative spondyloarthropaties (SpA) or spondyloarthritis,
divides in two categories: axial (axSpA) and peripheral spondyloarthritis (pSpA).
In the first type,
axial skeleton is predominantly involved,
while in the second,
only peripheral manifestations of the disease are observed.
There is still the need for the search of techniques which increase the diagnostic accuracy of the axSpA in the early stage.
One of possible techniques is multiparametric MRI,
which,
apart from standard sequences,
consists of methods such...
Methods and Materials
We included into the retrospective study 49 patients who undergone multiparametric MRI of the SIJs due to the clinical suspicion of axSpA.
All examinations were performed between January 2017 and August 2018.
The inclusion criteria were: clinical suspicion of sacroiliitis in the course of axSpA and age between 18 and 45 years.
The exclusion criteria were: age <18 or >45 years,
the lack of clinical data about the reason of referral,
patients with a history of sacroiliac region trauma or neoplasm.
The mean age of...
Results
Characteristic of the group
In general,
46.9% (n=23) of the study group fulfilled the imaging arm of ASAS axSpA criteria.
There was not any statistically significant difference in age (p=0.195) and gender (p=0.130) between group fulfilling the imaging arm of ASAS axSpA criteria and the group without the diagnosis of axSpA.
Diagnostic performance of DWI/ADC and DCE sequence vs.
STIR sequence The performance of the visual assessment of DWI sequence combined with ADC map and DCE sequence was compared to the STIR sequence with regard...
Conclusion
In conclusion,
the visual assessment of DWI sequence with ADC maps and DCE sequence is characterised by high accuracy and sensitivity of bone marrow oedema/osteitis detection,
but the specificity of these sequences is poor,
especially for the DWI sequence with ADC maps.
Moreover,
the inter-observer agreement of these two sequences is lower than the one calculated for the STIR sequence.
Hence,
the visual assessment of DWI and DCE sequences is not beneficial to the early diagnosis of active sacroiliitis in the course of axSpA.
As...