Im 26 and just been diagnosed with osteoarthritis from an mri scan. my question is can mri tell different types of arthritis apart? i've had severe knee pain on right side for over a year with no other symptoms?

I would think they help along with labs and clinical examination and clinical and family history. Best place to learn about this is uptodate.com but Yggdrasil is a fee. You can ask your local Dr to give you a free 1 month subscription if they have one. The more you know the better you can take care of whatever it is.

Yes, MRI can differentiate degenerative conditions like osteoarthritis (OA) from inflammatory conditions like rheumatoid (RA). Severity of symptoms does not always correlate with severity seen on MRI. First, have the doctor determine if the pain from the joint versus structures around the joint (bursa, tendon, etc). Second, if it is OA, why did it happen at age 26?