Simplified Power Doppler Ultrasonographic Assessment Research Articles

SP0082 Do We Need A Different US Joint Count for Diagnosing, Monitoring and Remission in Ra?

Musculoskeletal ultrasound (US) is a valuable imaging modality for detecting and quantifying a range of joint pathologies occurring in rheumatic diseases, especially RA. Recently new imaging modalities such as US...

AB0510 Monitoring disease activity and response through power doppler ultrasonography in rheumatoid arthritis patients treated with rituximab – correlations with antibodies pannel

BackgroundRituximab is a a chimeric anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody approved to reduce the signs and symptoms of moderately to severely active rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in patients with inadequate response to first...

AB0750 Comparative study between physical and ultrasound examination in rheumatoid arthritis patients with low disease activity or in remission

BackgroundImaging data indicates that Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) patients in clinical remission (CR) may present persistent sub-clinical inflammatory activity. Positive Power Doppler Ultrasonography (PDUS) signal in joints is considered to be...

Validity, reproducibility, and responsiveness of a twelve‐joint simplified power doppler ultrasonographic assessment of joint inflammation in rheumatoid arthritis

To investigate the validity, reproducibility, and responsiveness of a simplified power Doppler ultrasound (PDUS) assessment of joint inflammation compared with a comprehensive 44-joint PDUS assessment in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who started therapy with a biologic agent. A total of 160 patients with active RA who started a biologic agent were prospectively recruited in 18 Spanish centers. The patients underwent clinical and laboratory assessment and blinded PDUS examination at baseline and 6 months. A PDUS examination of 128 synovial sites in 44 joints was performed. US synovitis and PD signal were semiquantitatively graded from 1 to 3 in all synovial sites. US count and index for synovitis and PD signal were obtained. PDUS intraobserver and interobserver reliability were evaluated. A process of data reduction based on the frequency of involvement of synovial sites by both synovitis and PD signal was conducted. Construct and discriminant validity of a simplified PDUS assessment was investigated. A PDUS simplified assessment including 24 synovial sites from 12 joints detected 100% of patients with synovitis and 91% of patients with PD signal. There was a highly significant correlation between the 44-joint count and index for synovitis and PD signal and the 12-joint count and index for synovitis and PD signal at baseline and 6 months (r = 0.84-0.90, P < 0.0005). The smallest detectable difference was lower than the mean change in simplified PDUS variables. A 12-joint PDUS assessment of RA joint inflammation may be a valid, feasible method for multicenter monitoring of therapeutic response to biologic agents.