Role of color Doppler in assessing disease activity of patients with spondyloarthropathies / 中国组织工程研究

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Spondyloarthropathies(SpA) are a group of interrelated disorders that involve the spine, peripheral joints, and tissues around or outside the joints. SpA are most common in young males, and both the incidence and the mutilation rate are very high. It is important to evaluate the disease activity of patients with SpA since the evaluation can help in therapeutic selection and prognostic prediction of SpA. But up to now there still has not been a widely clinically acceptable criterion to evaluate the disease activity of SpA.OBJECTIVE: To study the worth of color Doppler(CD) in assessing the disease activity of patients with SpA.DESIGN: Non-random and self-control clinical study based on the patients.SETTING: All patients recruited in this study were from department of rheumatology of the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University. And all the ultrasonic examinations were conducted in the department of ultrasound of the same hospital.PARTICIPANTS: Thirty(24 males and 6 females) patients with SpA who met the European SpA Study Group criteria for the classification of SpA issued in 1991 and consented to be examined by CD were included.METHODS: CD was used to determine the blood perfusion at 18 major entheses of lower limbs of each patient with a semi-quantitative method. Blood sample was also taken from the patients for the examination of erythrocyte sedimentation rate(ESR) and C reactive protein(CRP) . The disease activity of the patients was also evaluated with the Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index (BASDAI).MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: To observe the inter-correlations between entheseal blood perfusion, ESR, CRP and BASDAI.RESULTS: 80% of the 30 patients were detected to have positive perfusion in at least one enthesis of the 18 examined entheses, and all together 84 entheses were found to have positive perfusion among the 540 entheses being detected(positive rate 15.6% ) . The sum of entheseal perfusion detected in all the 18 sites was statistically correlated with the sum of patients' ESR,CRP, BASDAI respectively with the correlation coefficients of 0. 658, 0. 428and 0. 821 (all P ＜ 0.05) . ESR and CRP were also statistically correlated with BASDAI and their correlation coefficients were 0. 675 and 0. 368(Both P ＜ 0.05) . The sum of perfusion detected in the 18 entheses sites was correlated with BASDAI better than ESR or CRP was.Detecting the.entheseal perfusion by CD can help to determine the disease activity of patients with SpA, and then to guide selecting therapeutic strategy. It is also important for following up and prognosis.