ArticleArthritis research & therapy2020
Functional MR imaging beyond structure and inflammation-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis is associated with proteoglycan depletion of the lumbar spine.
Article in Arthritis research & therapy, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
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6 citing papers in PubMed, 5 citations in OpenAlex.
- Novel insights into the imaging of axial spondyloarthritis.EULAR rheumatology open · 2026Review
- CEST MRI: Translational prospects for intervertebral disc degeneration - from basic research to clinical applications.Journal of orthopaedic translation · 2026Review
- [From conventional to cutting edge imaging in rheumatology].Zeitschrift fur Rheumatologie · 2023Review
- Imaging in inflammatory arthritis: progress towards precision medicine.Nature reviews. Rheumatology · 2023Review
- Bioinformatics Analysis of Immune Cell Infiltration and Diagnostic Biomarkers between Ankylosing Spondylitis and Inflammatory Bowel Disease.Computational and mathematical methods in medicine · 2023Article
- Three-dimensional gait quantitative analysis in postoperative rehabilitation of lumbar degenerative diseases: a self-controlled before-after study.American journal of translational research · 2021Article
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14 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundTo compare the glycosaminoglycan (GAG) content of lumbar intervertebral disks (IVDs) of patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and healthy volunteers and to investigate the association of GAG depletion and disease-related clinical and imaging features.
methodsLumbar spines of 50 AS patients (mean age 50 ± 10.5 years) and 30 age-matched volunteers were studied with 3-T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and conventional radiographs (CR). The MRI protocol included high-resolution morphological sequences and the compositional GAG chemical exchange saturation transfer imaging technique (gagCEST). Morphological images were analyzed by three raters for inflammatory activity, fat deposition, disk degeneration, and structural changes on CR. Clinical and serological measures included the Bath AS Disease Activity (BASDAI) and Bath AS Function (BASFI) Indices and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels. GagCEST values of both groups were compared using a linear mixed model. Kendall-Tau correlation analyses were performed.
resultsGagCEST values were significantly lower in AS patients (2.0 ± 1.7%) vs. healthy volunteers (2.4 ± 1.8%), p = 0.001. Small, yet significant correlations were found between gagCEST values and CRP levels (τ = - 0.14, p = 0.007), BASFI (τ = - 0.18, p < 0.001) and presence of syndesmophytes (τ = - 0.17, p = 0.001). No significant correlations were found with BASDAI, inflammation, and fat deposition MRI scores.
conclusionsLumbar spines of r-AS patients undergo significant GAG depletion, independently associated with syndesmophyte formation, functional disability, and increased serological inflammation markers. Beyond establishing a pathophysiological role of the cartilage in AS, these findings suggest that gagCEST imaging may have an adjunct confirmatory role in the assessment of disease-related pathological MRI findings in axial spondyloarthritis.
trial registration3980 ( https://studienregister.med.uni-duesseldorf.de ).
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