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An official publication of the ACR and the ARP serving rheumatologists and rheumatology professionals

The Diagnostic View: Assess Your Rheumatology Knowledge

  |  Issue: April 2015  |  

Editor’s note: In this new recurring feature, we first present a series of images (this page) for your review, and then a brief discussion of the findings and diagnosis. Before you turn to the discussion, examine these images carefully and draw your own conclusions.

History

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These images are of a 55-year-old man with chronic back pain.

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Bilateral sacroiliac joint posteroanterior radiograph obtained at the time of the current presentation.

Figure 1: Bilateral sacroiliac joint posteroanterior radiograph obtained at the time of the current presentation.

Sagittal STIR image from a thoracic spine MR, obtained two years prior to the current presentation. STIR sequences are fat-suppressed, water-sensitive images, useful for detecting bone marrow and soft tissue edema.

Figure 2: Sagittal STIR image from a thoracic spine MR, obtained two years prior to the current presentation. STIR sequences are fat-suppressed, water-sensitive images, useful for detecting bone marrow and soft tissue edema.

Sagittal STIR image from a lumbar spine MR, obtained two years prior to the current presentation.

Figure 3: Sagittal STIR image from a lumbar spine MR, obtained two years prior to the current presentation.

 

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