Intraarticular injection of triamcinolone acetonide for gouty arthritis and its influence on inflammatory factors and treatment effect evaluation by infrared thermal imaging

Abstract

Objective To investigate the clinical efficacy of intraarticular injection of triamcinolone acetonide in the treatment of gouty arthritis and its influence on inflammatory factors, and to explore the value of infrared thermal imaging in evaluating the curative effect of gouty arthritis. Methods 200 patients with gouty arthritis treated at our hospital from January, 2015 to June, 2018 were randomly divided into two a control group and an observation group, 100 cases for each group. The control group were treated with lidocaine intraarticular injection; in addition, the observation group were treated with triamcinolone acetonide intraarticular injection. The clinical efficacy, serum inflammatory factors, pain score, knee joint function score, quality of life score, and adverse reactions were compared between the two groups. Infrared thermal imaging was used to measure the temperature differences of the knee joints in the patients. Results The total effective rate was higher in the observation group than in the control group (96.0% vs. 83.0%, P<0.05). After the treatment, the levels of CRP, IL-6, and PCT and the pain score were lower in the observation group than in the control group [ (5.18±3.09) mg/L vs. (8.50±3.27) mg/L, (20.05±2.76) ng/L vs. (23.24±3.07) ng/L, (3.78±1.46) μg/L vs. (5.49±1.93) μg/L, and (3.09±1.98) vs. (5.17±2.06) , all P<0.05]; the knee function score and quality of life scores were higher in the observation group than in the control group [ (86.75±10.04) vs. (75.86±8.13) , (87.47±8.29) vs. (80.08±7.53) , (86.89±8.21) vs. (78.72±7.32) , (87.16±8.24) vs. (79.29±7.47) , and (85.46±8.45) vs. (77.92±7.85) , all P<0.05 ]. No obvious adverse reactions occurred in both groups during the treatment. Infrared thermal imaging found that the temperature difference between the healthy and arthritis knees was decreased in both groups after the treatment (both P< 0.05), and that the difference was (0.56±0.27) ℃ in the observation group and was (0.87±0.32) ℃ in the control group (P< 0.05). Conclusions Intraarticular injection of triamcinolone acetonide can effectively treat gouty arthritis, alleviate inflammatory reaction and pain, and improve knee function and quality of life. Infrared thermal imaging can directly reflect the knee joint temperature in patients with gouty arthritis and can be used as an auxiliary method to evaluate the curative effect of gouty arthritis. Key words: Gouty arthritis; Triamcinolone acetonide; Intraarticular injection; Infrared thermal imaging