Abstract
Psoriatic arthritis is a diverse condition that may be characterized by peripheral inflammatory arthritis, axial involvement, dactylitis and enthesitis. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) allows visualization of soft tissue, articular and entheseal lesions, and provides a unique picture of the disease process that cannot be gained using other imaging modalities. This review focuses on the literature on MRI in psoriatic arthritis published from 1996 to July 2005. The MRI features discussed include synovitis, tendonitis, dactylitis, bone oedema, bone erosions, soft tissue oedema, spondylitis/sacroiliitis and subclinical arthropathy. Comparisons have been drawn with the more extensive literature describing the MRI features of rheumatoid arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis.
Highlights
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has advanced our understanding of many types of arthritis, both with respect to inflammatory processes and articular damage
The rate of increase in enhancement following contrast injection did not differ between Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients when they were matched for disease activity, but in both groups it was higher than in normal control individuals
Similar findings were described by Antoni and coworkers [3], who used dynamic-enhanced MRI to quantify synovitis in 10 PsA patients before and after infliximab treatment
Summary
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has advanced our understanding of many types of arthritis, both with respect to inflammatory processes and articular damage. Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) has received less research scrutiny than rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in many areas, including imaging [1], but this is likely to change because MRI outcome measures are increasingly being used in clinical trials of new therapeutic agents such as biologics [2]. In this review we summarize the literature describing the MRI features of articular and entheseal disease in PsA and include references to histopathological correlates where this information is available. Very few published studies have concentrated on PsA, and most data come from studies of broader groups of patients with ‘inflammatory arthritis’ or ‘spondyloarthropathies’ (SpAs) and from case reports and small case series
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