Clinical applications of advanced magnetic resonance imaging techniques for arthritis evaluation

Figure 11 Magnetic resonance follow-up of septic arthritis in a 58-year-old woman with shoulder pain, fever, and swelling. A: Coronal STIR shows severe edema within the proximal humerus as well as in the surrounding soft tissues with minimal intraarticular fluid; B: DCE-MRI relative enhancement map demonstrates extensive enhancement in the synovium and the humeral head; C, D: Follow-up MRI study 3 wk after intravenous antibiotic therapy demonstrates adequate response to treatment with reduction of edema on STIR and enhancement on DCE-MRI. Note also the change in the initial slope of the blue TIC (synovial enhancement) between pre and post-treatment studies. The orange TIC shows healthy muscle contrast enhancement as an internal reference. STIR: Short inversion time recovery; DWI: Diffusion-weighted imaging; MRI: Magnetic resonance imaging; DCE: Dynamic contrast enhancement.