Spondyloarthritis & psoriatic arthritis
Structural damage assessment in the spine of patients with axial spondyloarthritis – results from an international OMERACT multi-reader exercise using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based synthetic CT
Authors' conclusion
This OMERACT international multi-reader exercise established consensus definitions for spinal new bone formation and provided preliminary evidence that sCT meets key OMERACT criteria of domain match and feasibility.
Study context
- Population
- 20 patients with axSpA and 5 healthy controls; images assessed by seven experienced readers20 axSpA, 5 healthy controls
- Comparison
- MRI-based synthetic CT vs low-dose CT
- Outcome
- Sensitivity and specificity of sCT for spinal new bone formation (marginal syndesmophytes, non-marginal syndesmophytes, osteophytes) vs low-dose CT; inter-reader reliability
Methodological detailsmulti-reader exercise, international, OMERACT consensus, cross-sectional validation, OMERACT MRI in arthritis working group consensus meetings established definitions for spinal new bone formation and scoring rules
- Multi-reader exercise
- International
- OMERACT consensus
- Cross-sectional validation
- OMERACT MRI in arthritis working group consensus meetings established definitions for spinal new bone formation and scoring rules
Performance
As reported in the abstract
Diagnostic accuracy of sCT vs low-dose CT
| Test or model | Sensitivity | Specificity |
|---|---|---|
| Synthetic computed tomography (sCT) | 0.77 | ≥ 0.94 |
Synthetic computed tomography (sCT)
Sensitivity0.77
Specificity≥ 0.94
Further findings
| Outcome | sCT | Low-dose CT |
|---|---|---|
| Inter-reader agreement | ||
| Intra-class coefficient | 0.86 | 0.80 |
| Kappa | 0.70 | 0.68 |
Inter-reader agreement
- Inter-reader agreement substantial for both low-dose CT and sCT
Lesions scored on both sCT and low-dose CT (all participants)
- Total mean lesions scored
- 35.5
Original publication
Structural damage assessment in the spine of patients with axial spondyloarthritis – results from an international OMERACT multi-reader exercise using MRI-based synthetic CT. Semin Arthritis Rheum. Published 4 June 2026. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →