Abstract
Rheumatoid arthritis is a common chronic inflammatory arthritis, primarily characterized
by proliferative synovitis of the small joints of the appendicular skeleton. Rapidly
evolving treatment regimens for rheumatoid arthritis patients, including conventional
and biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs, promise improved quality of life
and prognosis. These treatments necessitate earlier clinical detection of rheumatoid
arthritis, a goal that has forever changed the role of imaging in this pursuit. This
review discusses the dominant imaging modalities in state-of-the-art rheumatoid arthritis
management: radiography, magnetic resonance imaging, and ultrasound. It focuses on
hand and wrist evaluation, with key relevant findings detected by each modality and
recent evidence supporting them. Emerging techniques are also described in this discussion
to understand likely future radiologic contributions to rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis
and management.
Keywords
rheumatoid arthritis - inflammatory arthritis - erosions - synovitis
