Background: Evaluating inflammatory changes over time on MR images of the spine in patients with suspected axial Spondyloarthritis (axSpA) can be a labor-intensive task, requiring readers to manually search for and perceptually align a set of vertebrae between two scans. The purpose of this study was to assess the feasibility of computer-aided (CA) evaluation of such inflammatory changes in a framework where scans from two time points are fused into a single color-encoded image integrated into an interactive scoring tool. Methods: For 30 patients from the SPondyloArthritis Caught Early (SPACE) cohort (back pain ≥ 3 months, ≤ 2 years, onset < 45 years), baseline and follow-up MR scans acquired 9-12 months apart were fused into a single color-encoded image through locally-rigid image registration to evaluate inflammatory changes in 23 vertebral units (VUs). Scoring was performed by two expert readers on a (-2, 2) scale using an interactive scoring tool. For comparison of direction of change (increase/decrease) indicated by an existing reference, Berlin method scores ((-3, 3) scale) of the same MR scans from a different ongoing study were used. The distributions of VU-level differences between CA readers and between the CA and Berlin methods (sign of change scores) across patients were analyzed descriptively. Patient-level agreement between CA readers was assessed by intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Results: Five patients were excluded from evaluation due to failed vertebrae segmentation. Patient-level inter-reader agreement ICC was 0.56 (95% CI: 0.22 to 0.78). Mean VU-level inter-reader differences across 25 patients ranged (-0.04, 0.12) with SD range (0, 0.45). Across all VUs, inter-reader differences ranged (-1, 1) in 573/575 VUs (99.7%). Mean VU-level inter-method differences across patients ranged (-0.04, 0.08) with SD range (0, 0.61). Across all VUs, inter-method differences ranged (-1, 1) in 572/575 VUs (99.5%). Conclusions: Fusion of MR scans of the spine from two time points into a single color-encoded image allows for direct visualization and measurement of inflammatory changes over time in patients with suspected axSpA.@en

Purpose: To investigate the feasibility of automatic quantification of bone marrow edema (BME) on MRI of the wrist in patients with early arthritis. Methods: For 485 early arthritis patients (clinically confirmed arthritis of one or more joints, symptoms for less than 2 years), MR scans of the wrist were processed in three automatic stages. First, super-resolution reconstruction was applied to fuse coronal and axial scans into a single high-resolution 3D image. Next, the carpal bones were located and delineated using atlas-based segmentation. Finally, the extent of BME within each bone was quantified by identifying image intensity values characteristic of BME by fuzzy clustering and measuring the fraction of voxels with these characteristic intensities within each bone. Correlation with visual BME scores was assessed through Pearson correlation coefficient. Results: Pearson correlation between quantitative and visual BME scores across 485 patients was r=0.83, P<0.001. Conclusions: Quantitative measurement of BME on MRI of the wrist has the potential to provide a feasible alternative to visual scoring. Complete automation requires automatic detection and compensation of acquisition artifacts.@en