[NMR tomography of the knee joint in patients with rheumatic joint diseases]

Twenty patients with rheumatoid gonarthritis were examined in a NMR tomograph with a 0.2 tesla resistive magnet. Synovial effusions were seen in 18 cases and thickening of the synovium in 15 cases. Discrimination between synovial fluid and synovium was gained by different NMR signals from various spin-echo sequences. In demonstrating a thickened synovium NMR tomography enables the depiction of inflammation inside the joint in earlier stages of illness than is possible with bone erosion detection from X-ray photographs.