Yi-Xiang Wang1, James F. Griffith1, Min Deng1, Tena K. Li2, Lai-Shan Tam2, Vivian WY Lee3, Kenneth K.C. Lee2, Edmund K. Li2
1Dept Imaging & Interventional Radiology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, NT, Hong Kong; 2Dept Medicine and Therapeutics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, NT, Hong Kong; 3School of Pharmacy, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Spine ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is a chronic inflammatory enthesopathy. MRI scoring methods for quantifying the level of spinal inflammatory activity rely on the detection of (a) bone marrow edema on T2W fat-suppressed sequences, (b) hyper-diffusion of gadolinium into the interstitium of inflamed tissues on fat-suppressed T1W sequences. While spine AS inflammation manifests as areas of edema or gadolinium enhancement, our study shows these changes do not necessarily always occur in parallel, and contrast enhanced MR imaging yielded a higher lesion score than STIR imaging. The edema lesions seemed to be more responsive to treatment than contrast enhanced lesion.