Abstract
Musculoskeletal ultrasound is a non-ionizing, cheap, reproducible, reliable imaging method, well accepted by the patients, that plays an important role in daily rheumatology practice. It can be used to assess joint and periarticular involvement, including tendon, bursae, enthesis, skin thickness, nails, lung and large vessels. Musculoskeletal ultrasound is more sensitive than physical examination, improves the diagnostic process, monitoring of treatment response, the accuracy of joint and soft tissue injections. It has proved its role as an important imaging modality in a number of rheumatic diseases – inflammatory joint diseases, systemic connective tissue diseases, large-vessel vasculitides, and degenerative and metabolic bone diseases.
Highlights
Musculoskeletal ultrasound (MSUS) has played a major role in rheumatology in the last decade
The advantages MSUS offers can be of technical nature such as no ionizing radiation in using the method, it is a low-cost method, easy to perform, reproducible and well tolerated by patients, and of clinical nature such as provision of real-time imaging, of better sensitivity than physical examination, enables assessment of many structures over a relatively short time, allows dynamic examination during movement of the joints and tendons, and explores the region of interest from many planes, detects subclinical synovitis, enthesitis, early erosions and improves efficacy of articular and periarticular procedures.[4]
In 2016, the International Task Group of experts in MSUS published a paper with 6 practical algorithms for the use of ultrasound in patients with Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in daily rheumatology practice
Summary
Musculoskeletal ultrasound (MSUS) has played a major role in rheumatology in the last decade. It has been proven to be a valuable method in diagnosing, treatment monitoring and ultrasound-guided procedures. In 2001, Backhaus et al published guidelines for the performance of ultrasound examination for each of the joint regions.[1] In 2005, Wakefield et al published definitions for ultrasonographic pathology.[2] MSUS has been demonstrated to have good reproducibility and interobserver reliability.[3] The advantages MSUS offers can be of technical nature such as no ionizing radiation in using the method, it is a low-cost method, easy to perform, reproducible and well tolerated by patients, and of clinical nature such as provision of real-time imaging, of better sensitivity than physical examination, enables assessment of many structures over a relatively short time, allows dynamic examination during movement of the joints and tendons, and explores the region of interest from many planes, detects subclinical synovitis, enthesitis, early erosions and improves efficacy of articular and periarticular procedures.[4] These advantages of using MSUS in rheumatic diseases will be reviewed successively in this paper
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