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The Relationship Between Synovial Pathobiology and Magnetic Resonance Imaging Abnormalities in Rheumatoid Arthritis:
Frances Humby1,2, Arti Mahto3,4, Muaaze Ahmed3,4
1From the Centre for Experimental Medicine and Rheumatology, William Harvey Research Institute, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary, University of London; Department of Radiology, Barts Health UK National Health Service (NHS) Trust; Department of Rheumatology, Barts Health NHS Trust, London; Leeds Institute of Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Medicine, University of Leeds and UK National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Leeds Musculoskeletal Biomedical Research Centre, Leeds, UK. f.humby@qmul.ac.uk.
Objective:
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been increasingly recognized as a critical tool for the assessment of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and is able to reliably identify synovitis, bone marrow edema, bone erosion, and joint space narrowing (JSN)/cartilage loss. Understanding the exact relationship between each MRI feature and local synovial pathobiology is critical to dissect disease pathogenesis as well as develop future predictive models.
Methods:
A systematic review was performed of the current published literature examining the relationship between MRI abnormalities and synovial pathobiology in patients with RA.
Results:
Eighteen studies were identified; most focused on validation of MRI as a tool to detect and quantify synovitis, with a significant relationship demonstrated. Additionally, from the limited data available, a critical role seems likely for synovial pathways, at least in driving joint damage. However, there was a lack of data examining the relationship between synovial pathobiology and bone marrow abnormalities and JSN.
Conclusion:
Although understanding the interrelationship of these disease biomarkers offers the potential to enhance the predictive validity of modern imaging with concomitant synovial pathobiological analysis, further studies integrating MRI with synovial tissue analysis in well-controlled cohorts at distinct disease stages before and after therapeutic intervention are required to achieve this.
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