This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
MRI effectively monitored cartilage loss in patients with RA
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Magnetic resonance imaging was effective in monitoring cartilage loss in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, according to study results from a multisite clinical trial.
Researchers studied 31 patients (mean age, 42.2 years; 24 women) with active rheumatoid arthritis (RA; disease duration, less than 5 years) from the IMPRESS trial who randomly were assigned rituximab and methotrexate or placebo and methotrexate. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examined patients’ dominant hand/wrist at baseline, 12 weeks and 24 weeks at three U.S. clinical sites. X-rays (XR) of both hands/wrists and both feet at baseline and 24 weeks were performed on 27 of the patients.
One radiologist, masked to visit orders, scored all XR images by using the van der Heijde-modified Sharp method. The same researcher, also masked to visit orders and XR results, assessed all magnetic resonance images showing cartilage loss based on a previously validated 9-point scoring scale and measured all bone erosions by utilizing the Outcome Measures in Rheumatology Clinical Trials RA MRI Score. Analysis used pooled data from both treatment arms.
Mean MRI cartilage score increased from 4.2 at baseline to 4.5 at 12 weeks (P=.124); it reached statistical significance at 24 weeks (mean score, 4.6; P=.034). At 24 weeks, XR total Sharp, XR erosion and XR joint-space narrowing scores all increased, with only XR total Sharp score showing a significant increase (P=.034) when bilateral hands, wrists and feet were included.
“To our knowledge, this is the first publication of a study demonstrating MRI’s ability to monitor cartilage loss in a multisite clinical trial,” the researchers concluded. “Combined with MRI’s established performance in monitoring bone erosions in RA, these findings suggest that MRI may offer a superior alternative to XR in multisite clinical trials of RA.”
Disclosure: See the study for a full list of relevant disclosures.
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts