Prolonged time between intravenous contrast administration and image acquisition results in increased synovial thickness at magnetic resonance imaging in patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis

Background Post-contrast synovial thickness measurement is necessary for scoring disease activity in juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). However, the timing of post-contrast sequences varies widely among institutions. This variation in timing could influence thickness measurements. Objective To measure thickness of the synovial membrane on early and late post-contrast knee magnetic resonance (MR) images of patients with JIA. Materials and methods Dynamic contrast-enhanced T1-weighted knee MR images of 53 children with JIA with current or past knee arthritis were used to study synovial thickness at time point 1 (about 1 min) and time point 2 (about 5 min after contrast administration). Two experienced readers, who were blinded for the time point, independently measured synovial thickness at a predefined, marked location in the patellofemoral compartment on randomized images. Synovial thickness at the two time points was compared using the Wilcoxon signed rank test. Repeatibility of the synovial thickness measurements was studied using intraclass correlation coefficients and Bland-Altman plots. Results Median synovial thickness of the 53 patients (median age: 13.5 years, 59% female) increased with prolonged post-contrast interval with a synovial thickness of 1.4 mm at time point 1 and a synovial thickness of 1.5 mm at time point 2 ( P <0.001). Repeated synovial thickness measurements showed an intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of 0.75, P <0.05 for time point 1 and an ICC of 0.91, P <0.05 for time point 2. Conclusion Post-contrast synovial membrane thickness measurements are time-dependent. Therefore, standardization of post-contrast image acquisition timing is important to achieve consistent grading of synovial inflammation.