Clinical significance of high frequency ultrasonography of finger joints in patients with rheumatoid arthritis / 实用医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the significance of ultrasonography in the examination of rheumatoid arthritis(RA). Methods The wrist joints of activated RA and wrist, metacarpophalangeal, proximal interphalangeal joints of remission of RA were determined, and the imaging features were analyzed. Results Patients with activated RA were divided into two groups. The bone erosion and sheath lesions were lower in the group of duration less than 1 year than those in the group of duration over 1 year (P < 0.01). The positive rate of ultrasound was higher than that of X-ray in bone erosion (P < 0.05). To patients with the remission of RA, the positive rate of ultrasound was higher than that of the physical examination in synovitis ( P < 0 . 05 ) . Conclusions For bone erosion, ultrasound is better than X-ray for patients with early RA. For synovitis, the sensitivity of ultrasonography is higher than the physical examination in remission for RA patients.