Measuring the Impact: Magnetic Resonance Imaging Response of Sacroiliac Joints to Tumor Necrosis Factor Inhibitors in Youth With Axial Disease
Bibliographic record
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the timeline for resolution of sacroiliac joint (SIJ) inflammation, changes in structural lesions, and their correlation with patient-reported outcomes (PROs) in youth with axial juvenile spondyloarthritis (axJSpA) initiating tumor necrosis factor inhibitor (TNFi). METHODS: This prospective, multicenter study included youth aged 8 to 18 years with a clinical diagnosis of axJSpA starting TNFi. Assessments were conducted at baseline and 12 weeks, including clinical evaluation, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and PROs. Participants with persistent SIJ inflammation at 12 weeks were reassessed at 24 weeks. Three blinded reviewers evaluated MRIs using Spondyloarthritis Research Consortium of Canada SIJ inflammation scores (SIS) and SIJ structural scores. RESULTS: Of 75 enrolled participants, 73 completed baseline visits, and 62 had MRI-confirmed axJSpA. Fifty-seven completed a 12-week follow-up; 89% (51 of 57) showed SIS improvement, and 63% (36 of 57) achieved inflammation resolution (SIS <2). Median SIS change from baseline to 12 weeks was -8 (interquartile range: -18 to -3). Among those with persistent inflammation at 12 weeks (n = 26), 85% reported at least moderate clinical improvement. At 24 weeks, 56% (14 of 25) had ongoing inflammation. A total of 84% of SIS improvement occurred within the first 12 weeks. In patients with at least two scans, structural lesion scores decreased, increased, or stayed the same from baseline to the 12-week scan for erosions (58%/25%/18%), sclerosis (21%/9%/70%), fat metaplasia (0%/30%/70%), and backfill (4%/28%/68%). CONCLUSION: Most participants showed early imaging response to TNFi, with most improvement occurring within 12 weeks. Despite residual inflammation persisting in nearly half of patients, most reported symptom improvement, underscoring both the rapid impact of TNFi and the heterogeneity of treatment effects.
Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.
How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.003 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".