Predictive Value of Whole-Body MRI & Ultrasound Explored in EULAR Studies

About 40% of patients with psoriasis end up being diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis, and early treatment leads to better outcomes. Dr. Mathew said his team hopes to be able to draw some significance from the inflammation findings over time.

“Does that mean anything? Not at the moment,” he said. “What we’re essentially doing is following them to see how many of them develop psoriatic arthritis.”

Thomas R. Collins is a freelance writer living in South Florida.

References

1. Freeston JE, Mankia KS, D’Agostino MA, et al. Can whole body MRI at baseline identify definite inflammatory arthritis patterns in undifferentiated arthritis? (abstract OP0630). Annual European Congress of Rheumatology. 2017 Jun 16. Madrid, Spain.
2. Dohn UM, Brahe CH, Hetland ML, et al. Ultrasound shows signs of inflammation in most patients with rheumatoid arthritis in longstanding clinical remission, irrespective of conventional or synthetic or biologic DMARD therapy (abstract OP0628). Annual European Congress of Rheumatology. 2017 Jun 16. Madrid, Spain.
3. Brown AK, Quinn MA, Karim Z, et al. Presence of significant synovitis in rheumatoid arthritis patients with disease-modifying antirheumatic drug-induced clinical remission: Evidence from an imaging study may explain structural progression. Arthritis Rheum. 2006 Dec;54(12):3761–3773.
4. Mathew AJ, Bird P, Gupta A, et al. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) inflammation of the feet demonstrates subclinical inflammatory disease in cutaneous psoriasis patients without clinical arthritis (abstract OP0629). Annual European Congress of Rheumatology. 2017 Jun 16. Madrid, Spain.