Evaluation of Synovitis of Hand in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis Using Diffusion Kurtosis Imaging: Initial Findings

Thirty patients with RA and 10 patients suspected of RA were enrolled to explore the application value of DKI in the noninvasive identification of synovitis in hand arthritis. The suspected synovitis or joint effusion was scored on a scale of 0 (joint effusion) to 3 (mild, moderate, severe synovitis), referring to RAMRIS (RA-MRI-Scoring) system. ADC, D, and K from DKI were recorded and compared. There were significant differences in ADC, D, and K values among different enhancing degree scores. The diagnostic performance provided by the D values is similar to the ADC value and higher than the K value.