:3; Personal non-commercial use only

ABSTRACT. Objective. The functional disability experienced in juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is primarily caused by joint effusion, synovial membrane hypertrophy, and periarticular soft tissue edema, leading to the degeneration of the osteocartilaginous structures because of the inflammatory process in the synovium. The ability to visualize the inflammatory changes and hence the ensuing osteocartilaginous degeneration is, therefore, of great importance in pediatric rheumatology. Ultrasonography (US) has been validated as a tool for measuring cartilage thickness in healthy children and, previously, we have found good agreement with the measures obtained by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Our aim is to validate and compare US with MRI measurements of distal femoral cartilage thickness in the knee joint at the medial condyle, lateral condyle, and intercondylar spots in children with JIA, and to locate the best spot for imaging comparisons. Methods. One knee from each of 23 children with oligoarticular JIA were investigated by both MRI and US. Outcome measures of imaging procedures were distal femoral cartilage thickness. Results. We found a high level of agreement between MRI and US measurements of mean cartilage thickness, and Rho values between modalities were high (between 0.70 and 0.86, p < 0.05 for all). We found a thinner cartilage thickness at the medial condyle in comparison to the other investigated points. Evaluation of anatomical landmarks for optimal measurement of cartilage thickness was found to be the intercondylar spot, which was easier to locate in addition to a smaller variance around the mean for that anatomical measuring point. Conclusion. US measurements of distal femoral cartilage thickness are highly correlated to MRI measurements. The intercondylar notch of the distal femoral cartilage may be the best anatomical point for cartilage thickness measurements of the knee. US is a reliant and nonexpensive, non-invasive modality for visualization of childhood femoral cartilage. (First Release Dec 15 2014

Personal non-commercial use only. The Journal of Rheumatology

ABSTRACT. Objective. The functional disability experienced in juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is primarily caused by joint effusion, synovial membrane hypertrophy, and periarticular soft tissue edema, leading to the degeneration of the osteocartilaginous structures because of the inflammatory process in the synovium. The ability to visualize the inflammatory changes and hence the ensuing osteocartilaginous degeneration is, therefore, of great importance in pediatric rheumatology. Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is the most common rheumatic disease in childhood, resulting in musculoskeletal pain, joint stiffness, and joint swelling. JIA will lead to disability if left untreated. The longterm functional disability experienced in JIA is primarily caused by the degeneration of the osteocartilaginous structures in the affected joints because of the inflammatory process in the synovium 1 . The ability to visualize the inflammatory process and the following osteocartilaginous degeneration is, therefore, of great importance in pediatric rheumatology. The imaging modalities most frequently used are conventional radiography, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and within the last decade, ultrasonography (US) 2 . MRI may currently be regarded as the gold standard imaging modality in rheumatic diseases because it can visualize all tissues with excellent precision. The ability to weigh sequences for specialized tissue imaging and the use of contrast agents make it superior to conventional radiography and US. MRI is especially effective in visualizing hyperemia and synovitis, and in predicting erosive changes by visualizing bone marrow edem