This course is a curated collection of 13 interactive cases focused on common (and commonly confused) inflammatory and crystal-related arthropathies—with a strong emphasis on hands, wrists, feet, and toes, where small differences in pattern recognition make a big difference in reporting. Across the set, you’ll work through classic (and sometimes early) presentations of rheumatoid arthritis (from isolated/incipient erosions to established erosive disease), key differentials such as calcium pyrophosphate arthropathy (CPPD), and the “pattern-heavy” entities, psoriatic arthritis (periosteal reaction, erosions, mutilating changes) and polyarticular gout. Cases include radiographs and selected CT and MRI examples, paired with concise clinical vignettes and teaching text—designed to sharpen your diagnostic confidence, refine terminology, and reduce pitfalls when clinical information is limited. A short video by Kay G. Hermann or Torsten Diekhoff wraps up every case.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this course, learners will be able to:

• Recognize and differentiate the key imaging patterns of rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, CPPD arthropathy, and polyarticular gout in the hands, wrists, feet, and toes across X-ray (and selected CT/MRI).
• Identify early versus established disease features, including incipient/isolated erosions and progression patterns, and describe them using consistent, report-ready terminology.
• Apply a practical differential-diagnosis framework to reduce common pitfalls when clinical information is limited, linking imaging clues to the most likely inflammatory vs crystal-related arthropathy.