Ultrasonography of the shoulder in patients with rheumatoid arthritis : comparison with clinical examination / 中华超声影像学杂志

ABSTRACT

ObjectiveTo investigate the application value of ultrasound in the diagnosis of shoulder abnormality among patients with rheumatoid arthritis(RA).MethodsShoulders of 41 RA patients and 20 healthy volunteers were examined by high frequency ultrasound and physicians.Abnormal ultrasonography and clinical appearance were recorded.Results Abnormalities,such as tendonitis of long head of biceps tendon(14 shoulders),synovitis ( 15 shoulders),rotate cuff degeneration (6 shoulders),bone erosion (25 shoulders) and joint effusion(10 shoulders),were found in RA patients and only 16 shoulders were found abnormal by clinical examination.The positive rate of ultrasound (43.9％) was significantly higher than that of clinical examination (19.5％,P =0.001 ).Only a small amount of effusion was found in tendon sheathes of 2 biceps in the control group.ConclusionsMost of shoulder abnormalities can be detected by ultrasound and the sensitivity of ultrasound is higher than that of clinical examination.Ultrasonography is valuable in the diagnosis of shoulder RA.