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Contributor: Kirkland Davis, M.D.

When Professor Kirkland Davis, M.D., gave a short talk about shoulder arthritis at a recent American Roentgen Ray Society meeting, he was surprised by the lack of publications on the less common forms of arthritis affecting the shoulder.

“I looked into available review articles to provide background for my talk, and all of the review articles that seemed to be out there were from the 1990s,” said Davis.

Though some of this information is available in current textbooks, Davis wanted something a little more accessible.

Davis, along with resident Eric Hartman, MD and co-authors Professor Michael Tuite, M.D., FACR, Associate Professor Humberto Rosas, M.D., created a poster comparing common diagnoses of arthritis to more rare conditions. Rheumatology Professor Kevin McKown, MD helped provide differentiating clinical features to go along with the descriptions of typical imaging findings.

Having an image displaying osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis next to one displaying a more exotic form of arthritis, like neuropathic arthropathy, provides an excellent contrast, and allows viewers to clearly see the subtle differences.

To obtain all of the images he needed, Davis reached out to an incoming fellow, Jared Dale, M.D.

“[Dale] was at University of Washington, and because some of the diagnoses in the poster are relatively rare, I hoped that by involving another institution we could provide a more comprehensive review of imaging findings of various types of shoulder arthritis.”

The poster won a Certificate of Merit. Drs. Hartman and Davis plan to turn the poster into a manuscript and submit it for publication in the American Journal of Radiology.