To study fully automated digital joint space width (JSW) and bone mineral density (BMD) in relation to a conventional radiographic scoring method in early rheumatoid arthritis (eRA).
Radiographs scored by the modified Sharp van der Heijde score (SHS) in patients with eRA were acquired from the SWEdish FarmacOTherapy study. Fully automated JSW measurements of bilateral metacarpals 2, 3 and 4 were compared with the joint space narrowing (JSN) score in SHS. Multilevel mixed model statistics were applied to calculate the significance of the association between ΔJSW and ΔBMD over 1 year, and the JSW differences between damaged and undamaged joints as evaluated by the JSN.
Based on 576 joints of 96 patients with eRA, a significant reduction from baseline to 1 year was observed in the JSW from 1.69 (±0.19) mm to 1.66 (±0.19) mm (p<0.01), and BMD from 0.583 (±0.068) g/cm
NCT00764725.
To measure the JSW with this fully automated digital tool may be useful as a quick and observer-independent application for evaluating cartilage damage in eRA.