Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Nov;41(11):3319-3324.
doi: 10.1007/s10067-022-06277-x. Epub 2022 Jul 18.

The correlation of ultrasound-detected synovitis in an individual small joint with overall clinical disease activity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Xuerong Deng #  1 , Xiaoying Sun  1 , Wenhui Xie  1 , Yu Wang  1 , Zhuoli Zhang  2
Affiliations

The correlation of ultrasound-detected synovitis in an individual small joint with overall clinical disease activity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Xuerong Deng et al. Clin Rheumatol. 2022 Nov.

Abstract

Objectives: To explore the correlation between the ultrasound-detected synovitis in each individual joint at metacarpophalangeal (MCP), proximal interphalangeal (PIP), and metatarsophalangeal (MTP) regions and the clinical disease activity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Methods: Clinical disease activity was assessed by disease activity score (DAS) based on 28-joint count and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (DAS28-ESR), C-reactive protein (DAS28-CRP), Simplified Disease Activity Index (SDAI), and Clinical Disease Activity Index (CDAI). Gray scale (GS) and power Doppler (PD) synovitis was assessed by ultrasound semi-quantitatively. The correlation between clinical disease activity indices and synovitis score in each joint was assessed using Spearman's rank correlation test.

Results: 211 RA patients were included in this study. The whole GS scores of all MCP joints showed the highest correlation with each Clinical Disease Activity Index (r = 0.403-0.452, p < 0.01). Likewise, the whole PD scores of all MCP joints also showed the highest correlation with clinical disease activity (r = 0.332-0.396, p < 0.01). At individual joint level, the highest correlation of GS score with DAS28-ESR (r = 0.411, p < 0.01), DAS28-CRP (r = 0.459, p < 0.01), and SDAI (r = 0.444, p < 0.01) was observed in MCP3 joint while with CDAI (r = 0.421, p < 0.01) in MCP2 joint. The highest correlation of PD score with DAS28-ESR (r = 0.353, p < 0.01), DAS28-CRP (r = 0.399, p < 0.01), CDAI (r = 0.368, p < 0.01), and SDAI (r = 0.377, p < 0.01) was observed in MCP5 joint.

Conclusions: The ultrasound-detected synovitis at MCP joints, especially MCP2, MCP3, and MCP5 joints, was best correlated with clinical disease activity in most RA cases, in contrast to PIP and MTP joints. Key Points • The correlation of ultrasound-detected synovitis in each individual joint with the clinical disease activity in RA patients is diverse among joint regions. MCP joints showed the best, in contrast to PIP and MTP joints.

Keywords: Clinical disease activity; Rheumatoid arthritis; Synovitis; Ultrasound.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Prevoo MLL, Van’T Hof MA, Kuper HH et al (1995) Modified disease activity scores that include twenty-eight-joint counts development and validation in a prospective longitudinal study of patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Arthritis Rheum 38:44–48. https://doi.org/10.1002/art.1780380107 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Anderson J, Caplan L, Yazdany J et al (2012) Rheumatoid arthritis disease activity measures: American College of Rheumatology recommendations for use in clinical practice. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken) 64:640–647. https://doi.org/10.1002/acr.21649 - DOI
    1. Gaujoux-Viala C, Mouterde G, Baillet A et al (2012) Evaluating disease activity in rheumatoid arthritis: which composite index is best? A systematic literature analysis of studies comparing the psychometric properties of the DAS, DAS28, SDAI and CDAI. Joint Bone Spine 79:149–155. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbspin.2011.04.008 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Landewé R, van der Heijde D, van der Linden S, Boers M (2006) Twenty-eight-joint counts invalidate the DAS28 remission definition owing to the omission of the lower extremity joints: a comparison with the original DAS remission. Ann Rheum Dis 65:637–641. https://doi.org/10.1136/ard.2005.039859 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Sun X, Deng X, Xie W et al (2019) The agreement between ultrasound-determined joint inflammation and clinical signs in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Arthritis Res Ther 21:100. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13075-019-1892-0 - DOI - PubMed - PMC

MeSH terms

Substances

LinkOut - more resources