Magnetic resonance imaging of wrist and finger joints distinguishes secondary Sj?gren's syndrome with rheumatoid arthritis from primary Sj?gren's syndrome with articular manifestations

摘要

Sirs,It is sometimes difficult for clinicians to differentiate the arthritic condition of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) from that of Sjogren's syndrome (SS) (1). We have recently reported the importance of anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (CCP) antibodies for this differentiation (2). In addition, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is also very useful for the recognition of arthritis especially in early arthritis patients who do not show abnormalities by x-ray (3-5). We recruited 29 patients of SS who fulfilled the diagnostic criteria of SS according to the American-European Consensus Group (6) with articular manifestations from the Unit of Translational Medicine, Department of Immunology and Rheumatology, Nagasaki University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. Informed consent was obtained and the protocol was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Nagasaki University.