Rishi Awasthi1, Vikas Agarwal2,
Deepak Tripathi2, Vinita Agarwal3, R. K. S. Rathore4,
Rakesh K. Gupta1
1Departments of
Radiodiagnosis, Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical
Sciences, Lucknow, India, Lucknow, UP,
India; 2Departments of Immunology, Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate
Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, India, Lucknow, UP, India; 3Departments
of Pathology, Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, India, Lucknow, UP, India; 4Department
of Mathematics & Statistics, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, UP
A total of 17 patients (seven detected tubercular and 10 with inflammatory arthritis) were imaged using both conventional and DT MRI. It was found that DTI derived FA and CL of synovial membrane were significantly higher in tubercular arthritis as compared to the non-tubercular ones. In synovial fluid, apart from FA and CL, CP was also significantly higher in tubercular arthritis, while MD values were significantly lower than inflammatory arthritis. We conclude that DTI can non-invasively differentiate between chronic inflammatory arthritis from tubercular arthritis which is of importance in appropriate management of these patients.