Osteoarthritis Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Osteoarthritis, including details on treatment, symptoms, causes, medication.

Further evidence that a cartilage-pannus junction synovitis predilection is not a specific feature of rheumatoid arthritis.

Rhodes LA, Conaghan PG, Radjenovic A, Grainger AJ, Emery P, McGonagle D

Academic Unit of Medical Physics, University of Leeds, Wellcome Wing, Leeds General Infirmary, Great George Street, Leeds LS1 3EX, UK.

BACKGROUND: Qualitative differences in synovitis between the cartilage-pannus junction (CPJ) region and the adjoining suprapatellar pouch (SPP) have been reported in rheumatoid arthritis and the spondyloarthropathies. OBJECTIVE: To determine if the distribution of synovitis is the same in osteoarthritis (OA) using sensitive measures of inflammation derived from dynamic, contrast enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DEMRI). METHODS: 20 subjects with established OA of the knee were recruited. Conventional MR images together with the DEMRI measurements were obtained. Areas of synovitis at the CPJ region and at a distant site in the SPP were calculated; differences in CPJ and SPP synovitis were determined using DEMRI parameters: the initial rate of contrast enhancement (IRE) and maximal enhancement (ME). RESULTS: The area of synovitis was significantly greater adjacent to the CPJ than in the SPP. IRE and ME measures were greater at the CPJ than the SPP. CONCLUSIONS: The magnitude of synovitis at the CPJ is not disease-specific and applies across the spectrum of degenerative disease as well as inflammatory diseases.

Published 15 August 2005 in Ann Rheum Dis, 64(9): 1347-9.
Full-text of this article is available online (may require subscription).

© 2004-2008 Osteoarthritis Research Today. All Rights Reserved.