[Imaging of rheumatoid arthritis: role of MR imaging and CT]

An increasing aggressive therapeutic strategy has attracted growing attention to the potentials of MR imaging in the diagnosis, prognostication, and outcome measure of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). In the diagnosis of RA, skeletal destructions are the key to the diagnosis and assessment of long-term prognosis in RA. Marginal bone erosion is still recognized as an important finding in the 2010 RA criteria, and erosions typical of RA are deemed to have prima facie evidence of RA. MR imaging can detect erosions better than radiolography. In this regard, erosions detected by CT are considered to be reference standard to evaluate diagnostic accuracy of erosion in MR imaging and other imaging modalities. Further, to assess therapeutic effect of therapeutic agents involving the control of bone remodeling, CT may be used to evaluate bone formation and improvement of osteoporosis.