[Typical arthritis of the hands : Psoriatic arthritis]

Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) is considered the prototype of peripheral spondyloarthritides (SpA) and is associated as skin-bone disease (SkiBo) with typical skin changes and with typical arthritides of the joints, especially of the hands and feet.

Systematic review of imaging manual findings patterns in PsA with its typical enthesitic arthritides in context with clinical findings.

A review based on the current literature on the subject from a radiological and rheumatological point of view is provided.

In PsA, inflammatory manifestations in the hands and feet are the most frequently affected regions of the body. Image morphological variability between early and late stages is evident. The projection radiographic characteristic of PsA is the simultaneous coexistence of osteodestructive-rarefactive changes with typical osteoproliferative-proliferative changes, which are part of the Classification of Psoriatic Arthritis (CASPAR) criteria. With the help of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the image-morphological spondyloarthritis inflammatory patterns of enthesitis, dactylitis and osteitis can be detected in the hands even in the early stages.

The basic knowledge of the image morphological changes of this complex autoimmunological skin-bone disease will be imparted in order to gain the necessary confidence in the systematic diagnostic evaluation of hand arthritis patterns typical for PsA in images both at the initial diagnosis and over the course of the disease and in the classification of early and late stages, which serve as a guide for rheumatologists regarding "step-up" treatments.