Quantitative dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI of bone marrow perfusion at the proximal femur: influence of femoral head osteonecrosis risk factor and overt osteonecrosis.

Objective: To evaluate the MRI perfusion changes in patients with risk factors for osteonecrosis and normally appearing femoral heads prior to overt femoral head osteonecrosis.

Methods: Fifty-eight patients (105 hips) were prospectively included in this ethics committee-approved study. There were 46 hips with no image anomalies and no risk factors for osteonecrosis of the femoral head (ONFH) risk factors, 38 with ONFH risk factors and no image abnormalities, and 21 with overt ONFH.

Early rheumatoid arthritis and its differentiation from other joint abnormalities.

The introduction of disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs has created new demands on imaging to early identify patients with rheumatoid arthritis and opened new prospects in therapeutic management of patients with aggressive disease. Therefore, new imaging modalities such as magnetic resonance imaging and ultrasound have developed during the past few years in this field. In some cases, both magnetic resonance imaging and ultrasound may be also useful in making the distinction between early rheumatoid arthritis and other joints abnormalities, including early psoriatic arthritis.