Abstract
Twenty-eight subjects were examined to determine the clinical usefulness of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) using a 0.22 Tesla, Toshiba NMR-CT, for the lumbar spine in rheumatoid arthritis. The study included 12 patients with classical RA, 3 with definite RA (RA group) and 13 patients whose pathological lumbar condition included lumbar spinal canal stenosis, spondylolysis, spondylolisthesis and intervertebral disc lesions. Computation images were produced to determine the “spin-lattice” relaxation time (T1) and the “spin-spin” relaxation time (T2) . MRI was shown to be excellent for the evaluation of rheumatoid nodular changes, slight compression fractures and erosion of vertebral bodies, and permitted quantitative determination of the severity of intervertebral disc degeneration on the basis of T2.
