Spinal cord and nerves are best visualized by MRI, which is able to show structural and functional anomalies of the spine. The primary objective of this study is to identify advantages or disadvantages of the T1-weighted fluid attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) sequence with BLADE technique (T1W-FLAIR BLADE), with and without parallel imaging when compared with T1 Turbo Spin Echo (T1 TSE) sequence when performing MRI examination of the lumbar spine in a sagittal view. L-spine examinations with T1W-FLAIR BLADE (with and without parallel imaging) and T1 TSE were acquired on 44 patients using a 1.5T scanner. These sequences were assessed by two radiologists a) quantitatively by comparing the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) and relative contrast (ReCon) measurements and b) qualitatively based on different features of the images such as cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) nulling.

Cervical spine involvement frequently occurs in patients with Psoriatic Arthritis (PsA) even in absence of sacroiliitis. Long disease duration, high disease activity in the first five years and presence of peripheral involvement are all predictors of this peculiar articular involvement.

A key feature of chronic inflammatory disease is heterogeneity. For clinicians, this poses problems not only in disease diagnosis and assessment, but also in providing personalized disease management for the patients. There are at least two explanations for disease heterogeneity: First, different patient subgroups have different etiologies and subsequent pathways involvement, leading to a similar clinical outcome. Secondly, patients have similar etiologies but with different pathway modulations in patient subgroups, resulting in different degree of clinical outcome.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disorder that effects more than 1.3 million people in the United States. RA is an expensive disease that negatively impacts the patient’s quality of life. Inflammation of the synovial joints and destruction of articular cartilage and bones caused by RA can affect a patient’s ability to perform commonplace activities.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic disease of yet unknown etiology causing joint tenderness, swelling, destruction and premature death. Extraarticular manifestations such as cervical spine involvement, bursitis, tendovaginitis, rheumatoid nodules, rheumatoid vasculitis, pulmonary fibrosis, and accelerated atherosclerosis - to name a few – may occur.