MRI evaluation of infectious and non-infectious synovitis: preliminary studies in a rabbit model

Abstract

A greater degree of abnormal signal and enhancement seen on MR suggests a more vigorous inflammatory process, as seen with septic arthritis. In spite of advanced septic arthritis, no enhancement was evident within bone, suggesting that enhancement within bone is not an expected finding in isolated septic arthritis and should raise concern for osteomyelitis.

Metaphyseal osteomyelitis in children: how often does MRI-documented joint effusion or epiphyseal extension of edema indicate coexisting septic arthritis?

“…On MR imaging, features of pyogenic and reactive effusions have significant overlap including size of effusions, synovial thickening and perisynovial edema, and this has been previously published [8,9,21,22]. We did evaluate some of these additional parameters and found that the most consistent predictor of a coexisting pyogenic arthritis was solely the presence of a joint effusion, P-value <0.0001 (Tables 2 and 3).…”

Septic Arthritis in Dogs: A Retrospective Study of 20 Cases (2000-2002)

“…In these diseases, the radiographs and MRI do not really assist in the diagnosis; rather they provide later opinions to the nature and degree of the disease present (Strouse et al 1999). Bacterial arthritis may be confused with other types of arthritis (Owens and Ackerman 1978) due to their similar radiographic abnormalities.…”

Evaluation of joint effusion in rabbits by color Doppler, power Doppler, and contrast-enhanced power Doppler ultrasonography

“…There are studies reporting that PDUS is useful in diagnosing inflammatory diseases of joints because it shows the increased blood flow around joints. Strouse et al 10 reported that children who were revealed to have articular effusion on gray-scale sonography could be diagnosed with suppurative arthritis when the results of PDUS showed increased blood flow; however, they also stated that there had been cases of suppurative arthritis in which no increased blood flow was found, thus making diagnosis difficult. In this study, PDUS of the suppurative arthritis group showed high sensitivity defining a mild increase in signals-even on the 1st day, when there was no clinical finding of inflammation-thus corresponding to the infiltration of inflammatory cells that was histologically identified.…”

“…The times of scanning were determined based on the existing arthritis models of rabbits 10 and the gross morphological findings of inflammation. After scanning the sagittal view of the suprapatellar pouch of the knee joint, the same researcher performed Doppler ultrasonography using a 7 to 10-MHz linear transducer (Ultramark 9HDI, ATL, WA).…”