| Studied features | Advantages | Disadvantages |
---|---|---|---|
CR | Bone erosion | Gold standard | Low sensibility |
 | Joint space narrowing | Easy accessibility Low cost High specificity | No evaluation of bone density Ionizing radiation |
MRI | Bone erosion | Early detection of bone erosions | Expensive |
 | Bone edema | Prediction of erosive progression | Uncomfortable |
 | Synovitis | Monitoring bone change | No evaluation of bone density |
 | Tenosynovitis | Measurement of erosion volume Absence of radiation exposure |  |
CT | Bone erosion | High resolution | No evaluation of bone density, synovitis, and bone edema Ionizing radiation |
US | Bone erosion | Non-invasiveness | No evaluation of bone edema |
 | Synovitis | Easy accessibility | Sensibility depending on joint accessibility |
 | Tenosynovitis | Low cost |  |
 | Bone density | Monitoring bone change Investigating cortical and trabecular bone separately Absence of radiation exposure | Operator-dependent |
DXA | Bone density | Early detection of bone damage Small effective radiation dose | No evaluation of bone erosion, bone edema, and synovitis |
DXR | Bone density | Better reproducibility than DXA Higher sensitivity than DXA Predictive of erosive disease | No evaluation of bone erosion, bone edema, and synovitis Ionizing radiation |