Analysis of X-ray,CT and MRI images for sacroiliac joint pathological changes of ankylosing spondylitis

Objective To discuss the different imagea characteristics of sacroiliac joint sacroiliac joint pathological changes in X-ray,CT and MRI and explore the clinical cignificane.Methods Selecting 42 cases of AS patients who were examined in the author's hospital from October 2009 to June 2011,all of them were taken X-ray,CT and MRI.Results Among the 42 patients there had 84 sacroiliac joint lesions,the features of their X ray and CT:there were 13 cases of level 0,15 cases of level Ⅰ,46 cases of level Ⅱ,6 cases of level Ⅲ,4 cases of level Ⅳ,11 patients had 22 sacroiliac joints with cartilage abnormalities among them which mainly manifest on the appearance of irregular thickening or distorted intermediate signal on T1WI and T2WI and the disappearing of the normal linear intermediate singal cartilage images.Conclusion The X-ray of the the sacroiliac joint is still a simple and reliable method for patients with ankylosing spondylitis,but its qualitative analysis is bad compared to CT and MRI.The CT and MRI for the diagnosis of sacroiliac joint is basically the same,but MRI is superior to CT in the diagnosis of the cartilage destruction and ligament damage.