%0 Journal Article
%T Magnetic resonance imaging in psoriatic arthritis: a review of the literature
%A Fiona McQueen
%A Marissa Lassere
%A Mikkel £¿stergaard
%J Arthritis Research & Therapy
%D 2006
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/ar1934
%X 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 specifically 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.A Medline/Embase search was undertaken from 1966 to July 2005 using the following search words; EXP arthritis, psoriatic, magnetic resonance imaging, magnetic resonance, psoriasis and combinations thereof. A total of 264 hits resulted, and of these 20 reports were regarded as useful (category 1, Table 1) but two could not be obtained from library serial collections or electronically.Twelve more articles were found by hand searching and were included in the source material for this review. Of the 30 articles finally identified [3-32], 24 dealt with MRI of peripheral joints or entheses and six with axial joints. Table 2 classifies these articles alphabetically (by first author) and describes the type of study, number of patients examined and field strength of MRI machine used. The review has been organised according to the various MRI characteristics of PsA, including synovitis, bone erosion and bone oedema, enthesitis, tenosynovitis and dactylitis, spondylitis/sacroiliitis and subclinical disease.Histopathological studies have suggested that the inflamed synovial membrane of PsA differs in certain su
%U http://arthritis-research.com/content/8/2/207