title: Screening for rheumatoid arthritis with finger joint power Doppler ultrasonography: quantification of conventional power Doppler ultrasonographic scoring.
abstract: Power Doppler ultrasonography (PD-US) has proved to be a useful technique to measure synovial vascularity due to its capability to provide data that can be used to evaluate the level of joint inflammation and assess rheumatoid arthritis (RA). We have developed a novel PD-US finger joint scoring method that introduces quantitative measurements into the conventional PD-US assessment method. A comparison of the two methods revealed that our novel PD-US method strongly correlates with the conventional method in terms of RA assessment. We performed finger joint PD-US on 69 patients with RA and 70 patients who had multiple joint pain but showed no evidence of inflammatory diseases (non-inflammatory disease, NI) and measured the synovial vascularity of the metacarpophalangeal joints 1-5 and proximal interphalangeal (PIP) joints 1-5 for each patient. We analyzed the data with receiver operating characteristic analysis and, based on the results for the total vascularity of 20 finger joints, defined a cut-off value of 36% as discriminating between RA and NI. This cut-off value was found to be a valuable tool in screening for RA. We conclude that our finger joint PD-US scoring system is both useful and applicable for diagnosing RA.
authors.affiliation: Center for Rheumatic Diseases, Tokeidai Memorial Hospital, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fukae
authors.forename: Masato
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shimizu
authors.forename: Yujiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kon
authors.forename: Kazuhide
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tanimura
authors.forename: Megumi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Matsuhashi
authors.forename: Tamotsu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kamishima
authors.forename: Takao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Koike
mesh_terms: D018771:Arthralgia / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D005384:Finger Joint / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D007249:Inflammation / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013582:Synovial Fluid / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D013583:Synovial Membrane / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D018608:Ultrasonography, Doppler