Pathologic findings in synovial tissue of the musculoskeletal system: role of MRI in therapeutic clinic assessment.

OBJECTIVES

The clinical diagnosis of synovial lesions is difficult and radiographic findings may establish a confident diagnosis only in some cases. MR imaging has become the technique of choice in evaluating these lesions, because a presumptive diagnosis can be made in most cases. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the joint synovial disease through intravenous contrast MRI examination and the following histological validation.

MATERIALS AND

METHODS

Forty-eight patients were considered, twenty-seven women and twenty-one men, with pain relief or collectively determined by a known joint synovial disease, who underwent MRI at our institution between 2000 and the second half of 2010. All patients underwent magnetic resonance imaging using a low field magnet (0.2 Tesla) or high field magnet (1,5Tesla).

RESULTS

Only nine patients were diagnosed with an inflammatory arthropathy, in the remaining cases non-inflammatory arthropathy of which the most frequent form was pigmented villonodular synovitis (PVNS) was diagnosed.

CONCLUSIONS

MRI is able to provide an accurate representation of all the pathological changes involved in the joint space following acute or chronic inflammation and to define the characteristic features useful in differential diagnosis.