Can MR only IR-UTE based BoneView imaging, along with routine MRI, be used to exclude sacroiliac joint (SIJ) pathologies without the need for X-Ray?

Motivation: For a comprehensive diagnostic imaging investigation of SIJ, neither plain radiographs alone nor MRI alone provide sufficient specificity and sensitivity for accurate diagnosis of traumatic and/or non-traumatic sources of SIJ dysfunction. Goal(s): Our goal is to show that using UTE based BoneView imaging technique, we can sufficiently detect enough structural radiological features of SIJ in non-pathological cases. Approach: 24 patients with non-pathological SIJ were recruited for this study and inter-reader as well as inter modality agreement was computed based on a likert scale by two radiologists. Results: There was high inter reader agreement as well as inter modality agreement. Impact: MR only (IR-UTE based BoneView + routine MR) can be used to exclude patients with pathological SIJs and further investigation is necessary to extend the findings further to pathological cases as well.