Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disease that causes inflammation, pain, swelling of joints and also around tissues of joints, mostly in wrists and fingers. RA can also produce inflammation in lungs, pericardium, pleura, sclera, nodular lesions, and most common under the skin. Patients with autoimmune diseases have antibodies in their blood that target their own body tissues, where they can be associated with inflammation.

Scintigraphy is used for the detection and monitoring of RA. It may be helpful in the evaluation of multiple joints or whole body assessment in single session of imaging. Abnormal activity on whole body scintigraphy may help target specific joints for evaluation with focused ultrasound or MRI. Scintigraphy may detect inflammation or bone turnover at sites of active erosion. Ultrasonography is fast and widely available imaging modality for the assessment of soft tissue and bone involvement by RA. Gray-scale ultrasound performed with high-frequency linear array transducers visualizes synovial membrane thickening, bone erosions, and joint effusions.MRI specifically used for the evaluation of synovitis in RA.