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Purpose: To verify the diagnostic value of contrast-enhanced MR imaging compared with conventional radiography in the diagnosis of sacroiliitis in children.Design and Patients: Radiography and MR imaging of the sacroiliac joints were performed in 185 children subdivided into the following groups according to the modified European Spondyloarthropathy (SpA) Study Group (ESSG) criteria: group 1, undifferentiated spondyloarthropathy (uSpA) (n=53, 94.5% HLA-B27+); group 2, differentiated SpA (n=45, 93.3% HLA-B27+); group 3, patients with no signs of SpA other than oligoarthritis (n=39, 92.3% HLA-B27+); group 4, HLA-B27+ controls with various other non-SpA diagnoses (n=22); and group 5, HLA-B27-controls with various other non-SpA diagnoses (n=26). Radiographs were evaluated on the basis of the modified New York criteria independently by three experienced radiologists masked to the clinical data. In a second step, the same radiologists independently evaluated the MR images without knowledge of the clinical data and radiographic findings using the recently published criteria developed by our group. These criteria allow differentiation of acute and chronic inflammatory changes.Results: Radiography demonstrated sacroiliitis in 18 patients: 4 of 53 in group 1 (7.5%), 14 of 45 in group 2 (31%), but none in groups 3, 4 and 5. In contrast, MR imaging demonstrated acute and/or chronic sacroiliitis in 44 patients: 18 of 53 in group 1 (34%), 21 of 45 in group 2 (46.7%) and 5 of 39 in group 3 (12.8%), but none in groups 4 and 5. The percentage of sacroiliitis detected by MR imaging was significantly higher than that detected by radiography (P<0.001).Conclusion: Contrast-enhanced MR imaging is a useful method for detecting sacroiliitis in children. Advantages of contrast-enhanced MR imaging compared with conventional radiography are a higher sensitivity due to the ability to document early and acute changes and the absence of radiation exposure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To determine in a prospective study the normal MRI morphology of the sacroiliac joints (SIJs) in relation to age and sex during adolescence.Design and Patients: A total of 98 children (63 boys, mean age 12.7 +/- 2.8 years; 35 girls, mean age 13.7 +/- 2.3 years), ranging in age from 8 to 17 years, with juvenile chronic arthritis (JCA) but without signs of sacroiliitis fulfilled the study prerequisites (no back pain and no pathologic changes of the SIJs on physical examination before MRI in a 1.5-year follow-up). An additional eight HLA-B27-negative boys and eight HLA-B27-negative girls without arthritis served as controls. The MRI protocol comprised a T1-weighted SE sequence, an opposed-phase T2*-weighted GE sequence, and a dynamic contrast-enhanced study in single-section technique.Results: Noncontrast MRI permitted differentiation of "open" from ossified segmental and lateral apophyses of the sacral wings, with a significant difference in age (P < 0.05) between children with open and ossified apophyses. Ossification of the apophyses of the sacral wings was seen significantly earlier (P < 0.05) in girls than in boys. Girls also had a significantly higher incidence of transitional lumbosacral vertebrae, pelvic asymmetries, and accessory joints. In the contrast-enhanced opposed-phase MRI study, normal cartilage of the SIJs showed no contrast enhancement whereas the joint capsule showed a moderate enhancement.Conclusion: There are significant age- and sex-related differences in the normal MRI morphology of juvenile SIJs. Our findings might serve as a standard of comparison for the evaluation of pathologic changes--in particular for the early identification of juvenile sacroiliitis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unlabelled: Diagnosis of Lyme arthritis (LA) in children and adolescents may be difficult due to non-specific clinical manifestations and unreliable serological tests for antibodies to Borrelia burgdorferi. In a national prospective study, 186 children with arthritis were examined in whom the attending physicians had considered the diagnosis of LA. Ultimately, LA was confirmed in 87 patients and these were compared with the remaining 99 children in whom arthritis was attributable to other causes. In comparison to patients with other causes of arthritis, patients with LA had a higher frequency of episodic arthritis and initial knee joint arthritis, reported tick bites more frequently, were older, had a lower frequency of initial arthralgias, and there were fewer large joints involved. A score was developed in a group of these patients and tested in a second group. It enabled patients with LA to be distinguished from those with other causes of arthritis: within a range from 12 to -7 points, a score of 2.5 or less excluded LA whereas 6 or more points were highly indicative of LA. If only those children with a score result between 2.5 and 6 had been tested for antibodies to B. burgdorferi, the number of tests would have been reduced by 63%.Conclusion: Careful analysis of clinical presentation and use of a clinical score may help in distinguishing LA from other causes of arthritis and thus reduce unnecessary and expensive testing and uninterpretable test results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]