「 Low-Field Compact Magnetic Resonance Imaging
System for the
Hand
and Wrist in Rheumatoid Arthritis 」
Purpose: To investigate the feasibility of an originally
developed compact MRI
system for evaluating rheumatoid
arthritis(RA), and determine its advantages
and disadvantages as an imaging
modality for evaluating RA.
Materials and Methods: We prospectively studied 13 healthy controls
with
no clinical symptoms of arthritis,
and 13 patients with hand and wrist pains
(including pain from RA) with a 0.2T permanent-magnet compact MR imager.
All MR images were obtained while
the subjects were in a sitting position.
Coronal three-dimensional spin-echo
T1-weighted images and coronal two-dimensional
short tau inversion recovery(STIR)
images were obtained with image matrix=256x128
and field of view(FOV)=20.48cm.
Plain radiograph findings and
MRI findings of patients were compared.
Resuits: In three of the patients with suspected
early RA (N=7),
early RA was evaluated based
on STIR images. All RA patients showed morphologic
or signal intensity changes that
allowed an evaluation of RA from MR findings.
Four of five RA patients showed
high signal intensity on STIR images in the
wrist,
proximal interphalangeal(PIP)
joint, or metacarpophalangeal(MCP) joint
that
suggested synovitis. Multiple
erosions in the hand and wrist were seen
in four RA patients,
with low signal intensity on
T1-weighted images.
Conclusion: RA was correctly evaluated, and early RA
could be identified with
the compact MRI system. However,
the current system has limitations,
such as the nonselective STIR
sequence used and magnetic field inhomogeneity.