Broken-fat pad sign: a characteristic radiographic finding to distinguish between knee rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis

Abstract

Abstract Objectives Diagnostic imaging plays an important role in the pre-treatment workup of knee osteoarthritis (OA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Herein, we identified a useful MRI sign of infrapatellar fat pad (IPFP) to improve diagnosis. Methods Eighty-one age- and sex-matched RA and OA patients each, with pathological diagnosis and pre-treatment MRI were retrospectively evaluated. All randomized MR images were blinded and independently reviewed by two radiologists. The assessment process included initial diagnosis, sign evaluation, and final diagnosis, with a 3-week interval between each assessment. Broken-fat pad (BFP) sign was assessed on sagittal T2-weighted-imaging in routine MRI. The area under the curve and Cohen’s kappa (κ) were used to assess the classification performance. Two shape features were extracted from IPFP for quantitative interpretation. Results The median age of the study population was 57.6 years (range: 31.0–78.0 years). The BFP sign was detected more frequently in patients with RA (72.8%) than those with OA (21.0%). Both radiologists achieved better performance by referring to the BFP sign, with accuracies increasing from 58.0 to 75.9% and 72.8 to 79.6%, respectively. The inter-reader correlation coefficient showed an increase from fair (κ = 0.30) to substantial (κ = 0.75) upon the consideration of the BFP sign. For quantitative analysis, the IPFP of RA had significantly lower sphericity (0.54 ± 0.04 vs. 0.59 ± 0.03, p < 0.01). Despite larger surface-volume-ratio of RA (0.38 ± 0.05 vs. 0.37 ± 0.04, p = 0.25) than that of OA, there was no statistical difference. Conclusions The BFP sign is a potentially important diagnostic clue for differentiating RA from OA with routine MRI and reducing misdiagnosis. Critical relevance statement With the simple and feasible broken-fat pad sign, clinicians can help more patients with early accurate diagnosis and proper treatment, which may be a valuable addition to the diagnostic workup of knee MRI assessment. Key points • Detailed identification of infrapatellar fat pad alterations of patients may be currently ignored in routine evaluation. • Broken-fat pad sign is helpful for differentiating rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis. • The quantitative shape features of the infrapatellar fat pad may provide a possible explanation of the signs. • This sign has good inter-reader agreements and is feasible for clinical application. Graphical Abstract