Keywords:
Musculoskeletal bone, Musculoskeletal joint, Musculoskeletal soft tissue, Ultrasound, Ultrasound-Colour Doppler, Ultrasound-Power Doppler, Diagnostic procedure, Arthritides, Inflammation, Metabolic disorders
Authors:
F. Alves e Sousa1, A. L. Lourenco2, C. A. S. Ruano2, P. Gil2, A. Cardoso3; 1 Lisboa/PT, 2Lisbon/PT, 3Lisboa/PT
DOI:
10.26044/essr2019/P-0156
Background
In the spectrum of inflammatory and metabolic arthropathies,
the course of the disease largely depends on its early diagnosis and prompt institution of targeted therapy.
While conventional radiography is routinely used in clinical practice to depict structural changes during the course of the disease,
characterized by joint space narrowing,
juxta-articular osteopenia,
subchondral cysts,
bony erosions,
luxation and ankylosis,
ultrasound can detect early changes of the disease such as synovial hypertrophy,
tenosynovitis,
soft tissue neovascularization,
joint effusion and early erosions.
For this reason,
and specially due to its ability to detect and grade active inflammation,
the use of musculoskeletal ultrasound has increased dramatically over the past decade,
both in the diagnosis and monitoring of treatment response.
Moreover,
based on these developments and increasing interest,
a special Ultrasound Task Force on the behalf of Outcome Measures in Rheumatology Clinical Trial (OMERACT) organization was formed with the purpose of standardize the image acquisition technique as well as to define and score the most common pathologic findings in rheumatologic disease.