A particular form of septic arthritis: septic arthritis of facet joint.

Only about 40 cases of septic arthritis of the facet joints have been reported to date. We report 6 new cases including 2 at the cervical spine, which is rarely involved. Mean age was 61.

Inflammatory and structural evaluation in spondyloarthritis: magnetic resonance imaging analysis of axial and peripheral involvement.

Objective: To determine the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) criteria of most value in the assessment of patients with spondyloarthropathy (SpA) with axial or peripheral involvement.

Methods: Fat suppressed (FS)-T2 and pre- and postinjection FS-T1 images were obtained in the most symptomatic region (axial or peripheral) of patients requiring tumor necrosis factor-a blockers. Thirty-eight MRI (21 axial and 17 peripheral) were blindly scored at synovial (S) and entheseal (E) sites by 2 experienced observers screening for 7 inflammatory and 7 structural predefined criteria, which were evaluated for frequency (N) and intra- and interobserver reproducibility.