One-year followup study on clinical findings and changes in magnetic resonance imaging-based disease activity scores in juvenile idiopathic arthritis

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Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate whether clinical disease activity findings during 1-year followup of patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is associated with changes of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based disease activity scores.

METHODS: Patients with JIA who had active knee involvement were studied using an open-bore MRI. After followup of a median of 1.3 years, patients were re-evaluated and classified as improved or unimproved according to the American College of Rheumatology Pediatric-50 (ACR-Ped50) criteria. Baseline and followup MRI features were scored by 2 readers using the Juvenile Arthritis MRI Scoring (JAMRIS) system, comprising validated scores for synovial hypertrophy, bone marrow changes, cartilage lesions, and bone erosions.

RESULTS: Data of 40 patients were analyzed (62.5% female, mean age 12.2 yrs). After followup, 27 patients (67.5%) were classified as clinically improved, whereas 13 patients (32.5%) showed no clinical improvement. The clinically improved patients showed a significant reduction in synovial hypertrophy scores during followup (p < 0.001), with substantial effects (standardized response mean -0.70). No such changes were observed for any of the other MRI features. Significant differences were detected regarding a change in synovial hypertrophy scores comparing clinically improved and unimproved patients (p = 0.004), without statistically significant differences for changes in scores for bone marrow changes (p = 0.079), cartilage lesions (p = 0.165), and bone erosions (p = 0.078).

CONCLUSION: This is one of the first studies to provide evidence for MRI-based improvement upon followup in JIA patients with knee involvement. There is a strong association with clinical improvement according to the ACR-Ped50 criteria and changes in MRI-based synovial hypertrophy scores, supporting the role of MRI as a responsive outcome measure to evaluate disease activity with antiinflammatory treatment strategies.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)119-27
Number of pages9
JournalThe Journal of rheumatology
Volume41
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2014

Keywords

  • Adolescent
  • Antirheumatic Agents/therapeutic use
  • Arthritis, Juvenile/drug therapy
  • Bone Marrow/pathology
  • Child
  • Disease Progression
  • Female
  • Follow-Up Studies
  • Humans
  • Knee Joint/pathology
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  • Male
  • Prospective Studies
  • Severity of Illness Index
  • Treatment Outcome

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