THU0512 Fluorescence optical imaging in juvenile patients with and without inflammatory pediatric rheumatic joint diseases
Authors: M Beck, J Klotsche, A-M Glimm, S Ohrndorf, S Werner, G Horneff, M Backhaus, R Trauzeddel, K Minden, H Girschick
Journal: Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases (2017)

<h3>Background</h3> Imaging techniques play an important role in making a diagnosis and in the evaluation of treatment effectiveness as well as in the outcome assessment of juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). Fluorescence optical imaging (FOI) has been shown to visualize inflammation in arthritis of wrist and finger joints. FOI is a simple and cost-effectively imaging technique that is well tolerated by the patients. <h3>Objectives</h3> Firstly, to determine the association and agreement of FOI with ultrasonography (US) and physician9s assessment of swollen and active joints. Secondly, to estimate the predictive power of FOI to distinguish between patients with and without inflammatory pediatric rheumatic joint diseases. <h3>Methods</h3> A total of 95 patients were enrolled in three pediatric rheumatology centers in Berlin, Germany. FOI and US (in greyscale (GS) and power Doppler (PD)) were performed in each patient. The FOI software automatically generated the PrimaVista mode (PVM). Furthermore, three phases (P1, P2, P3) were defined dependent on the signal intensity in the fingertips. Each joint was scored semiquantitatively (0=no signal up to 3=strong signal, more than 50% of affected joint area) in each of the three phases and PVM. US was additionally graded by a semiquantitative score of each joint for synovitis (synovial thickening and joint effusions) in GS and hyperperfusion in PD mode. The joints were defined as active if the FOI or US reached a score of at least 1, respectively. We report the results on 27 patients in this interim analysis. <h3>Results</h3> The mean disease duration was 3.5 years (SD=3.2), the mean cJADAS-10 was 11.0 (SD=12.3), the mean number of active joints in the hand was 3.4 (SD=5.8). Half of the patients had polyarthritis (51.8%) and one third had a non-inflammatory rheumatic disease. A total of 810 joints in 27 patients could be analyzed. Among those, 140 (17.3%) had a positive US synovitis score, 87 (10.7%) a positive US power Doppler signal, 93 (11.5%) a clinically active joint and 133 (16.4%) a positive FOI PVM. Taking the US synovitis score as reference, the FOI PVM had a sensitivity of 40%, a specificity of 86% and an overall agreement of 79%. Taking the active joint count as reference, the FOI PVM had a sensitivity of 46%, a specificity of 88% and an overall agreement of 83%. The area under curve was 0.91 for US power Doppler, 0.84 for US GS synovitis, 0.76 and 0.93 for FOI PVM and P2 for the ability to distinguish between patients with and without inflammatory rheumatic diseases. FOI and US scores correlated highly with the cJADAS-10 and the physicians global. In contrast, the patient-reported outcomes pain and fatigue did not show any correlation with FOI and US scores. <h3>Conclusions</h3> FOI and US had a comparable predictive power to distinguish between patients with and without inflammatory rheumatic diseases in pediatric/ juvenile patients. The agreement between active joint count, US and FOI was high. FOI may provide a cost-effective method to evaluate inflammation in finger and hand joints. <h3>Acknowledgements</h3> The study was supported by an unrestricted educational grant by Pfizer. <h3>Disclosure of Interest</h3> None declared