Study of non-contrast MR imaging in evaluation of rheumatoid arthritis

在早期类风湿性关节炎患者中，非增强MRI能有效地识别与滑膜炎相关的腕关节和手指关节的骨损害(骨髓水肿和侵蚀)，以及增强MRI。MRI证实的骨髓水肿与2010年ACR/EULAR RA分类标准相结合，可提高RA的早期诊断概率。此外，MRI证实的骨髓水肿在治疗1年后被证明是控制骨和关节损害的指标。非对比磁共振成像具有成本效益，因为它可以使用较低磁场的磁共振设备有效地进行，并且不需要额外的造影剂成本。通过这项研究获得的知识有望加强MRI在早期RA评估中的临床应用。

Noncontrast MRI is effective in identifying bone lesions(bone marrow edema and erosion) in the wrist and finger joints associated with synovitis in early-stage RA as well as contrast MRI. The combination of MRI-proven bone marrow edema with the 2010 ACR/EULAR RA classification criteria improves the diagnostic probability of RA at an early stage. In addition, MRI-proven bone marrow edema was proved to be an indicator of control of bone and joint damage at 1-year after the treatment. Noncontrast MRI is cost-effective, as it can be efficiently conducted with lower magnetic field MR units and does not require additional cost of contrast media. The knowledge obtained by this study is expected to enhance the clinical application of noncontrast MRI in the evaluation of early-stage RA.